


The Queen and the Hive

by jcv0284



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Conspiracy, Corporate Espionage, F/F, Romance, Technology, Transhumanism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-03-18 09:23:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 71,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3564482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jcv0284/pseuds/jcv0284
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa is born into a future where nearly everyone is a cyborg. Outcast by her inability to be augmented, she will struggle to survive into a society that barely tolerates non-cyborgs, driven by the promise of one day finding her parents. Anna, Elsa and Kristoff are all unknowingly at the precipice of the technological singularity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Birth of a Demigod

 

September 2024

Agdar and Idunn stared in anticipation as their doctor scowled at the computer before him. A couple of aggressive swipes later and the program was ready to run again. The doctor switched to another window, furiously sifting through some documents to ensure all the data he'd been given was valid. Seeing no error, he returned and smashed the 'Analyze' button. After an agonizing wait, the computer gave up and yielded an error: "Analysis failed - invalid input signal."

"What does that mean?" Idunn demanded. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and unclenched her fists. "Is my baby going to be okay?"

Dr. Albert Mueller, the Arendelle family's trusted medical expert, did his best to placate."Well... the ultrasounds in the records all indicate healthy morphology. Furthermore, today's vitals are steady and consistent. She should live, but beyond that is uncertain. Aside from that, we can't run any real analysis on her."

All of the pre-natal evaluation and extrapolation programs had failed. The neuro-mapping, the genetic profile, Everything. Baby Elsa was a complete medical mystery. This invoked a particularly disturbing realization within Agdar. It gnawed at him, compelling him to ask: "So she'll be completely un-augmented... At the mercy of nature?"

Idunn cringed at her husband's words, the social and political implications crashing into her with overwhelming force. No matter what the context, Elsa would always be in last place; weak, vulnerable, and dependent upon others.

Sensing the pain in the young couple, Dr. Mueller replied with cautious optimism. "I wouldn't write her off just yet. After delivery we should have better access to her biological systems. We might even get lucky and be able to implant some synaptic co-processors and neural filters."

Idunn's demeanor softened ever so slightly at the doctor's hopeful words. Exhaling sharply, she took a moment to collect herself, but the environment wasn't helping. Sterile white walls with brushed steel trim towered over everyone in the room, casting a desolate tint over the meeting.

Ever a man of persistence and tenacity, Agdar pressed the issue. He straightened himself in his chair and put on the collected air of authority for which he was known. “Are you sure there isn't anything else you can do? I know it isn't a trivial request but her future is at stake...”

That calm, bold assertiveness never failed to light a fire in Idunn's heart. It had always been her favorite part of her husband's character, unwavering through the years. Basking in her heart's subtle throbbing, she scooped his arm in hers and gently rested her head on his shoulder. The desolate tinge of the environment faded into the background with him by her side.

Never one to give up on a challenge, Albert took stock of his options and relayed them. “I suppose I can go over all of the data again. If there's any change, I'll let you know.”

“You're the best.” Agdar replied with a confident smile. “Oh... before we go. That neurological implant we've been discussing... how far along is it?”

* * *

Whenever a perceptive individual also has the gift of love, they tend to learn their partner very quickly. Agdar was just such a man, ever in-tune with his beloved. Her anxious fidgeting, the wringing of her hands and the occasional chewing of her cheeks did not go unnoticed.

The fog of distraction clouding Idunn's mind didn't dissipate all at once. Her eyes glazed over, the image of passing streetlights and scenery bounced off the mind meaninglessly. The clearing was a slow, labored process that didn't solidify until she made a critical realization.

_'This isn't the way home...'_

Within moments, the telltale allure of curiosity had her in its grasp. Peeking over at Agdar revealed exactly what she'd suspected. He was planning something for sure. That determined expression of his stirred up far too many memories to be anything else. She shot her eyes upwards in momentary contemplation, pondering how effective it would be to pry the surprise out.

_'Nah... he's up to something sweet. I'll let him do it his way.'_

The ultimate destination of the evening finally lay before them. Idunn gave the building a once-over, finding a sleek, skewed, and asymmetrical glass-coated affair. From within, soft red lights diffused through dark black furnishings where they finally hit the frosted glass. Dead leaves briskly blew across the sidewalk along a breeze that kissed her skin. The sensation juxtaposed against the tantalizing warmth within, drawing her towards the door. A familiar hand clasped her own.

“I noticed you were feeling a bit edgy. Hungry, dear?”

“Oh Agdar...” She replied, gazing back at him with wide, wistful eyes.

Inside, the ambiance was saturated with the scent of lush delicacies and the sound of bavardage from patrons. Unlike typical babble, this chatter was soft, diffuse; every inch of the interior's design had been meticulously engineered to massage the harsh sounds of business into a gentle, relaxing serenade.

Soon the amorous duo were munching on exquisite Maine lobster, slathered far past the saturation limit with oodles of dripping butter. Idunn felt her anxiety melt away faster than the scrumptious chunks of crustacean flesh in her mouth.

“You know sweetheart, I'm actually starting to feel really good about things.” Agdar began, his tone steeped in optimism.

“Hmm?” Idunn hummed through a mouth full of succulence.

“Well, most of it's just a general good feeling... but Albert has arranged for me to get one of Evotech's newest brain implants. It'll tell me exactly how someone is feeling, and give suggestions of what they might be thinking. That's immediate feedback on if I'm being a good manager or not.”

The prospect did sound tantalizing. Having that kind of insight into someone's mind would bring you intimately close to their world. On the other hand... It would be trivial to manipulate them. Mulling over the idea, Idunn's face contorted with concern.

“I know I have my creative augment...” She started, eyes darting around as she pulled her thoughts out. “But this is different. This is leadership and control. How do I know I won't lose my husband to this thing?”

At this, Agdar's face lit up. He'd spent hours discussing the subject with Dr. Mueller, and they'd come to a solution that he thought was quite ingenious.

“Let me put your fears to rest dear. In the implant, there's an onboard computer with a learning algorithm. It keeps track of dopamine levels, and if I get a little too excited, it will provoke a controlled oxytocin release. I requested the feature myself, and Albert designed it.”

“At the first sign of trouble...” She started, letting out a weary sigh. “I'm making you get it removed. But... if it works the way it's supposed to...” Idun softened, gazing at him with contentment.

“It'll be nice to see you doing so much good.”

* * *

Fall in New England is always a most chromatic affair. Spatterings of of crimson and yellow disrupted the patches of faded grass underneath, all while spires of evergreen pushed upwards through masses of leaves below. Winter was coming to be sure, but for the moment, the vibrant grace of autumn cradled the home of Agdar and Idunn Arendelle.

The house came alive at their presence, garage door fading out of existence as the car approached. Lights ignited in sequence as Agdar and Idunn retreated into their home. The living room awaited; it was a somber place, but not bereft of elegance. Luxurious, wispy floral trim adorned nearly every major feature in unique contrast to the rest of the house. The design hearkened to a simpler time, before technology had permeated every facet of life.

As her husband peered thoughtfully out the window, Idunn gently interjected "What shall we do dear?"

“About what, sweetheart?” He queried.

Idunn in her persistent grace, strode over to the plush couch where he was sitting. Soft folds of her dress fluttered daintily as she moved. Gently laying herself down the length of it, she gingerly cradled her head in his lap.

“Elsa. What if she really can't accept augments?”

Agdar nervously dragged his hand over his lips and down his chin. "There aren't many things we can do. We can hope, but that's hardly effective. There are a few safe havens, and even in this hostile world some naturals flourish..." He trailed off, his voice faltering. Painful memories reminded him that all the luck in the world could only go so far.

Not even months before, a story had broken about a teenage natural boy who had been kidnapped and abandoned in an area of the city that only responded to neural inputs. The thought of being trapped in an inhospitable, seemingly empty place with no food, water or restroom and no promise of rescue sent an insidious chill cascading down Agdar's spine.

Still though, there was always reason to be hopeful. After all, they were a fairly well-off family with burgeoning social influence. They had the best biotech engineers at their fingertips, and favors that could be called in all across the North American continent.

“It's too early to start worrying. We'll just whip ourselves into a panic that way.”

Miffed, Idunn's face slid into a scowl. “It's never too early for foresight Agdar. There's gotta be at least something we can consider.”

“You're right of course. I'll figure something out.”

The months passed far more quickly than anyone could have prepared for.

A fire burned in the living room - it wasn't actual combustion, but rather a sophisticated emulation emitting both heat and light with none of the risk of a conflagration.

"... I do remember that! You had just gotten hired as a aerodynamics tester, and right when your new manager showed up to ask you how things were doing..."

Agdar jumped in and finished the story on his own: "Ted had plugged a wireless keyboard into the back of my machine and started KSP while I wasn't looking. The first thing my new boss saw was a squad of kerbinauts screaming their heads off as they incinerated in the atmosphere. I thought I'd have to find a new job, but they heard him sniggering behind us."

Swept away in the cheerful air, a smile burst across Idunn's face. "I'd only known you a few weeks." she started. "We had just finished working on a short film fo... Oh. OH!" Her expression morphed from jovial to concerned. "I think we've got company!"

Bolting into action, Agdar grabbed his beloved and in one deft motion swept her out of the house. He hopped into the driver's seat of their car and registered a medical emergency into the route planner. The vehicle's turbines hummed to life and jettisoned off into the night. Idunn interrupted the silence of the journey with a deceptively calm tone.

"Agdar, sweetheart... I feel. Cold. Freezing, even."

Unsure how to proceed on such little information, he did his best to soothe. "We're almost there, everything will be fine."

Moments later, their craft gracefully glided into the hospital lot. Medical staff hurriedly emerged from the building to tend to their newest patient.

Twelve hours and one utterly exhausting struggle later, Elsa Arendelle joined the world. With the last vestiges of her waking energy Idunn cradled her new daughter tenderly. Agdar stood by stoically and admired the scene before him. He flashed them both an endearing smile and remarked "All I see here is perfection."

A ferocious burst of frigidity completely blindsided Idunn. In a matter of milliseconds, newborn Elsa plunged to icy temperatures. A ghastly look possessed her mother's face; muscles tensed spastically as she unleashed a lung-shredding scream.

"DOCTOR! NURSE, PLEASE ANYONE!"

The staff, who had only recently started conferring with each other over the minutiae of the delivery operation, spun around at the disturbance.

Elsa was encased in ice. Thick, faceted volumes of it.

Before anyone could react, the ice receded. Shock and despair gave way to confusion. Surely, the infant's body temperature was back to normal. All that remained of the former ice sheets were wet puddles on the bedding.

“I swear, just a moment ago there we..."

Agdar cut her off "It was nothing sweetie, just some extra body fluids flying around in all the turmoil." He gave her a look, doing his best to convey wariness of calling attention to the debacle. Drawing ever nearer, he whispered "I think we should consult Dr. Mueller before making any of this public. Who knows what this could be?"

She faced him with grim agreement and nodded.

Agdar then turned and faced the staff, who still hadn't quite figured out what to make of the situation. Without a word, his assertive demeanor said all that needed to be said. He escorted them all out of the room with an utter lack of protestation from those being evicted.

The new father poised to speak but found himself disarmed by the sight before him. There it was - his world, his reason for existing, all in one place. It was pure, unadulterated bliss. Seeing the depleted look on his wife's face, he took their daughter from her and let her rest.

* * *

Two weeks later, it was finally time to have the fledgling girl fitted with her first round of upgrades. One of the greatest gifts a parent could give their children is the gift of technological enhancement. Diseases obliterated, morphological errors corrected, as well as receiving a framework that would allow the child's future self to have near total control over their destiny. Elsa's parents were hopeful that today would be the day their fears were laid to rest.

Several hours into the visit, the doors finally flew open to reveal Dr. Mueller. Agdar squeezed Idunn's hand gently and whispered: “Don't forget, I love you.”

Agdar sprang to his feet at Albert's arrival. The look on the doctor's face said everything, yet he still grew ever impatient with Albert's silence.

“I know it isn't good news. I promise I won't bite. Please, just tell us.”

"I'm sorry... we contacted every department in Evotech, I even personally exhausted my network of colleagues. All of the brain implants freeze and are attacked by her immune system. Every time we try to map her spinal cord, our instruments go dead. We couldn't get the MedulNode implanted, and I doubt we'll be able to install anything else either.”

“It's the ice, isn't it?” Idunn asked

Dr. Mueller nodded in the affirmative. “It sure is, it's interfering with everything. This wasn't exactly a research operation, so I didn't get much insight, but it's something neurological. Her nervous system lights up like a christmas tree when it happens.”

Tremendous dread loomed over Agdar. If Elsa was truly incompatible with not just augments, but the entirety of modern medicine, her life would be even more perilous.

“On the plus side, her immuno-response is significantly stronger than normal, she's completely impervious to freezing temperatures, and who knows what else. She should be a pretty tough girl. I've never seen anything like it."

Impatience lapped at both parents as it always does when separated from such a young child. Eager to have their daughter once again in their custody, they pushed the issue with Dr.Mueller. He assured them that she was, in fact, ready to be taken home.

* * *

The February storm raged with furious intensity, pelting the house of Arendelle. Inside, Idunn paced nervously. Fear about the future weighed in on her from all sides, escalating to intolerable levels. Lips quivering, she screamed "WE CAN'T DO THIS! It isn't fair to Elsa!"

The outburst didn't register with her husband at first - he wasn't being used to such an overwhelming outburst, especially not from his dearest.

"I- I can't think of a better idea! The... other life we lead is dangerous and that's without even considering how naturals are treated here. All the money in the world would be useless; there's no protecting her here.."

Maternal instincts on fire, Idunn jumped to counter. As soon as her mouth opened, realization gripepd her and, stopped her short. Her dissent was entirely irrational, saturated in her undying love for her daughter. It wasn't a perfect solution, not by a long shot. But it was the best one they had. Tearfully, she conceded.

Seeing her despair and being acutely affected by it himself, Agdar embraced her, gingerly stroking her arm with as much reassurance as the gesture could deliver. For several long minutes they mourned together.

With a heavy heart and sluggish manner, Agdar sulked over to his desk. Lifelessly, plopped into the chair, confidence sinking into its cushioning. Upon the desk, a display flickered on. A few interface commands later and a face appeared onscreen. A grin came across the distant face, and its owner asked "Agdar! What can I do for you old friend?".

Everything within Adgar's conscience kicked, protested, and dissented vehemently at what he was about to do. In the end, however, logic won the titanic struggle.

"Kai... I have a favor to ask of you. You remember all those years ago when I saved your life?"

Kai immediately sobered, and replied "I could never forget. What do you need?"

Idunn collapsed onto the bed nearby. Her resolve worn thin and her heart stressed to its breaking point, she wept ceaselessly into the night.


	2. Worlds Apart

The vast blue marble stared back at Elsa through the window. She had always wondered what things were like on Earth, with its endless open space and relative plenty of resources. She wasn't ungrateful for the life her godparents had given her. Far from it - life on the lunar outpost was certainly high quality. She could get nutritious foodstuffs from the galley any time of the day, and had access to the finest education available without a neural uplink. Her situation was certainly sustaining, but something on that blue sphere was calling out to her. Perhaps it was wanderlust? Maybe it was the prospect of finding true love? There was an endless array of possibilities, and try as she might, she couldn't extricate any single one of them as definitive. Elsa pondered this for awhile, wondering if Earth really was so grand, or if she was just being romantic. With a dreamy sigh, she directed her attention back to her tablet computer.

Minutes turned to hours while Elsa studied the history of humanity. Her eyes danced back and forth across the screen as she scanned the page, consuming the tale of a species both tenacious and troubled. Her eyebrows furrowed as she scrutinized chapters upon chapters of various factions fighting for recognition, rights, and survival. As she pressed on, the American civil rights movement, the sexual renaissance of the early 21st century, emergence of the trans-human movement, and a whole host of other cultural events swam through her thoughts. She closed her eyes and brushed her hair back as the full depth of the subject finally began to overwhelm her.

As she gently laid her tablet back down on the table, another subject began to creep its way into Elsa's pondering. She reached for her neck and searched with her hands until she grasped a small metal pendant. Raising it to eye level, she read the inscription. 'Never give up, Elsa'. She frowned as she rubbed her thumb across it. This small, gunmetal pendant was the one of the only links she had to her parents. They had given her little else – a single terse message, no pictures. Not even names. "Why couldn't you raise me?" She muttered. "You went through all the effort of sending me to Luna, of all places. What's so wrong with Earth?" Her heart dropped as the alternative crept up in the back of her mind. "... or what is so wrong with me?"

Kai's familiar voice crackled over the intercom "Elsa, we need you down in operations. There's an issue with one of the survey bots on the surface."

Activating the com unit strapped to her wrist, Elsa replied "I'll be there in just a moment!" Her mind began to swim with possibilities - if there was one thing she loved about this station, it was getting to hone a variety of skill sets. With a perfectly measured push, she jumped to her feet and strode towards the door, but an emotion from deep within stopped her at the threshold. The young woman spun around and gave the object of her daydreaming a glance before proceeding. Nested in the infinite void outside, the pale blue dot seized a chance to briefly stun and amaze her once more before her usual and overwhelming sense of duty dragged Elsa back to reality.

Clearly built for function, every nuance of the facility was rigid and solid. The overhead lights were in the middle of their day-long shift. Cold and dreary blues gave way to softer, more incandescent shades as the 'day' became night. A gentle, muted symphony of cooling fans, electrical circuits, and whirring servos was all that could be heard as Elsa passed stilly through the primary ring. She wasn't trying to be quiet, but a deep affinity for silence combined with graceful mannerisms worthy of a queen made her an especially stealthy person no matter what. Various scenarios flashed through the young woman's mind. "What could possibly have gone wrong with the survey drones?" She whispered to herself. "I've iterated the seek code thousands of times. You'd have to blast a chasm under one as it was running to throw it off..."

Operations' hydraulic doors slid open with a subdued hiss. Elsa's slender, leather-clad figure towered in the doorway. Back-lit by the diffuse lights, her dark outline juxtaposed harshly against the hallway behind her. Suspicion began to creep through Elsa's mind. Operations was the one department of the station that never shut down. Ever. Why would the lights be off and the monitors dimmed? Tiny slivers of frost began to manifest beneath her feet as she cautiously ventured into the room. With great trepidation, she spoke into the void "Gerda? ... Kai?"

"SURPRISE!" The room flooded with illumination as the overhead lights ignited. Gerda, Kai, and a few other excited people left from their hiding places in unison. "Happy Birthday Elsa!"

Elsa gasped before letting her muscles relax. The minute trail of ice she had tracked into the room melted back into pools of water. Feeling the last jitters of suspense finally left her, she remarked with a heartfelt smile "You didn't have to go through all this trouble for me." She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head ever so slightly "And besides, you didn't surprise me at all. I know my drone programming is perfect." A slight giggle rose from the group at her feigned arrogance.

Gerda drew Elsa in with her arm. "How else were we supposed to get you to do something other than work and study? You're industrious sweetheart, but you've gotta spend some time with people. Even if it's just on your birthday. You're 21 now, you can't be a hermit forever."

After snapping out of the minor introspective daydream Gerda's comment had induced, Elsa gazed at the floor and fidgeted with her hands abit before responding. "You're right, I do neglect my social needs... Thank you. I think this party will be lots of fun."

* * *

Just over nine hundred thousand miles away, Anna stood tall and erect at the precipice of an absolutely monstrous set of stairs. The concrete and steel plaza surrounding her stretched on for several hundred feet, and was full to the brim with all manner of highly polished, minimalistic street furniture. Fluorescent trim lighting and beveled edges adorned everything. Anna's face hardened as she took in the steep, ominous drop before her.

"I'm gonna do it! I'm ready, I was born ready!" She asserted with a bounce and a flourish.

"You're gonna kill yourself. There's gotta be at least 25, maybe 30 stairs there." Kristoff shot back. Miffed by his lack of confidence in her, Anna glared at him, the wind whipping copper hair past her face.

"I've got the best skeleton money can buy. You're just jealous!"

Kristoff shook his head and went to retort. Before he could get a word out, Anna was already dashing towards the stairset at breakneck speed. She whipped her hoverboard from her back down onto the pavement, and bounded into the air above it. With a crack and whirr, the board's repulsors activated. It dipped slightly as Anna transferred her momentum onto it. A flood of norepinephrine crashed through her brain, giving her the rush she so desperately craved while kicking her chronometric cortical implant into overdrive. Time began to slow down for Anna, as she sank down into a more stable posture. With unimaginable force she smashed her foot down on the tail of the board, bouncing it off the ground and sending both of her and it sailing into the sky. Approaching her apex, the adventurous daredevil grabbed the hoverboard and pulled it in close.

For a brief, blissful moment, Anna was the most graceful thing for miles around. Faint rainbow fractals ghosted over her vision, every thunderous heartbeat bringing her even higher than before.

Gravity and time savagely warped back into their normal states, but Anna didn't flinch. With the wind whipping against her face, she let her knees go loose and waited for the impact. The ground hit with unmitigated force, and Anna compressed again to absorb the energy. An insidious spark of doubt corrupted her spatial reasoning, forcing her legs to falter. Her expression went blank and she faded into a deathly pallor - the cold realization that she had milliseconds to decide between some scrapes and bruises, or a week of regenerative therapy threatened to stopped time again. Her nerves won the hellish battle, and she regained her composure just in time to fling herself into a low, long trajectory across the ground.

Kristoff grimaced and cringed at the sight of Anna sliding across the pavement, and skidding to a stop. "Anna!" He cried, before he vaulted over the wall and dashed down the stairs. Trembling, he arrived by her side.

Anna lazily plopped her arms by her side, sneered, and glared up at the sky with contempt. "Grr, I almost had it that time!"

His fears about his companion's safety assuaged, Kristoff finally dared to speak. "You did better than I would have. I can barely do a 5-set. Are you alright?"

Anna propped herself off the ground, and rose into something resembling a sitting pose. Drawing one corner of her lips back and gritting her teeth, she gave herself a cursory inspection. Her eyes stopped scanning when she got to her shoulder. She cringed a little as she noticed a fist-sized shred of skin that had been shorn off. The wound was crackling with electricity while a slight dribble of blood creeped out. She sighed with relief. "I should be fine in about an hour or so. We should go get something to eat though."

"Good, because it looks like we're about to get kicked out anyways. We'll come back some other time, You'll get it then. I know you will." The two of them surveyed the area to find all eyes squarely on them. Anna sheepishly giggled and brushed her hair back before the two reckless friends ventured away.

A few minutes later, the scent of meticulously prepared seafood wafted past Anna, instantly arresting her attention. Across the street, the culprit became obvious. She spotted a bright holographic sign, gently bobbing in the air, that read 'Frankllin Street Seafood'. Coming to a stop, Anna exclaimed "Oh Kristoff, I love this place! They have the best clam chowder!"

Intrigued by the prospect, Kristoff queried "Sounds good to me. Do they have tilapia?" The thought of soft, succulent fish stopped him in his tracks.

"They sure do! Come on, let's go!"

Standing near the edge of the table, a steamy, succulent bowl of chowder seduced Anna. Its pale porcelain form juxtaposed against the deep midnight mahogany of the table reminded her of the many late nights she'd spent gazing up at the moon in awe of its majesty. Transfixed, she sunk until the bowl was at eye level. A barely audible gasp escaped her lips.

Kristoff tried to stifle a laugh. "Anna just eat the thing. It isn't going to run away."

"You don't understand, it's soooo good!"

"I can tell, your eyes are glowing"

Anna squeaked before averting her gaze. Squirming in her seat, she fidgeted at being reminded of her peculiar quirk. Anna didn't know why, and none of the biotech specialists could tell her, but whenever she reached a certain state of arousal her eyes would begin to glow a radiant turquoise. Before long, anticipatory intrigue gave way to contentment and Anna began to savor her meal. She got about halfway through before the initial pleasures of eating wore off and her thoughts began to turn to more serious matters.

"I'm worried about my parents. They haven't gotten a hold of me in a long time. It's been almost 3 months since they've been home."

Various scenarios ran through Kristoff's mind. He knew Anna's parents were wealthy, someone could easily be after their money. He stared off into space, confounded by the lack of a ransom demand. Surely someone wanting money would have gotten to work trying to manipulate Anna. An accident while traveling? Surely the loss of a major passenger vehicle would have been reported. "I know they travel a lot and are pretty secretive about it, but 3 months is a long time. Are you going to start searching?"

Anna crossed her arms and gazed off into the distance, looking at nothing in particular. "I think I'll have to. I don't know what I'll do if something happened to them." Inwardly, she harbored a suspicion that she already knew what had happened to them, but wasn't ready to admit to such a loss. "My life is getting complicated all at once between graduating school and finding something to do with my life, but I think I've got enough free time to mount a rescue operation." Anna smirked at the audaciousness of her comment. "I'm sure everything will be alright, even if I have to make it that way myself." She took a deep breath, pushing her worries away and letting her optimism take the helm.

"I believe in you. I can't say I've got much going on in my life right now. I'm just trying to stay out of everyone's way and set up a nice living for myself. Sometimes I envy your ambition."

"Well, at least my shoulder is all healed up. Take a look at that!" Anna's face lit up like a child at Christmas with the realization that she was now free to throw herself right back into harm's way.

The clatter of dishes and silverware was abruptly interrupted by a cheer from a patron across the establishment. "Hey look everybody, it's that Westerguard guy on the TV!" On the screen stood a young man with ginger tinted hair and a perfectly pressed blazer.

"My name is Hans Westergard. I'm the president of Evotech industries, where we work around the clock to make everyone's lives safer. I'm sad to say, our way of life is under attack like never before. I'm sure you've heard the news. Dangerous Naturals are roaming the streets, taking advantage of anyone they can find." The camera panned as Hans walked over to a scared looking child, taking the child under his arm. "My company is working on the latest suite of upgrades designed to keep the ones you care about safe. Make sure you're signed up for our alerts. You can scan the bottom of the screen to sign up automatically. And please, if you see something, say something."

Riled by the advertisement, one of the patrons got out of his chair, looked around the room and proclaimed "Fuck the osterkleer!"

"They're jealous of us!" asserted a voice from across the room.

Another restaurant goer, a woman in her early 20's or so, looked troubled. Adding to the chorus, she added "They scare me... Don't they value their lives? A person who doesn't care could... do anything".

Anna recoiled visibly. "Ugh, that Hans guy makes me sick. Using fear to peddle his junk? When was the last time a Natural actually hurt someone? I mean come on, I can see people through walls, they can't." She threw up her arms, and continued. "How are they a threat to any of us?" Anna could feel herself getting warmer as an instinctual rage simmered deep within. Just the thought of anyone being treated as a lesser being threatened to set her off. It didn't even have to be anyone she knew personally, just the abstract idea of a person being abused caused the young woman's sense of empathy to flare into high gear.

A wave of cynical empathy coursed through Kristoff. He knew all too well how cruel people can be when faced with something they don't understand. _'I can see it written all over her face. I don't blame her. I might not like people but I can't stand seeing them abused'_. His eyes widened, and his skin began to crawl with the chilling realization that Anna may have made her remark a bit too loudly, and some of the excited patrons had begun to take notice.

"Anna..." he whispered, subconsciously shifting into a lower, rigid posture "I know you're upset but you might want to be careful how loudly you say that." He swung his head towards some of the onlookers.

The comment prompted her to stare daggers at him, but she knew he was right. Bold as she was, even she couldn't take on that kind of angry mob. She swiped her wrist past a pyramid shaped box on the table and remarked with a chuckle "We're all paid up, let's leave... I guess we're not welcome anywhere today, are we?"

* * *

Back across the vast expanse of space, Elsa let out a deep breath and laid back in her chair. She blew on her coffee a bit to cool it down before indulging in a sip of the delectable mixture. _'A healthy dose of chocolate always knocks it out of the park'_ she mused to herself. Before she could get completely lost in the taste, an shrill alarm noise from her console tore through the indulgent daydream. Without spilling a drop, Elsa deftly threw down the beverage and whipped around to read the nagging console. To her dismay, a series of error messages were stacking up in the report window for a mining operation on the surface below.

'Unit 3A: Drill Head Failure in Bore Assembly'  
'Unit 3A: Coolant flow rate has dropped below 450 ml/minute'  
'Global Driller Error: Unit Desync, pausing operation'

_'This is going to slow things down.'_ Elsa realized. Her alabaster face slouched into a more sober expression as she started to take in the full scope of the problem. Barely sullen but still mostly undaunted, she set to work allocating a replacement unit for the damaged one, and writing up a diagnostic report for the workers down on the surface. While quietly scrolling through the station tasks that would be offset by the delay, Elsa began to unconsciously rub her index and forefinger together. An incoming message alert from the surface let her know that more assistance was needed.

"Drill chief Gravis here. Elsa, I appreciate the replacement unit you sent us, but we're having a tough time seeing the coolant system with all the regolith dust floating around. Do you think you could send down a drone and blast the area clear with its thrusters?"

"I'd be happy to accommodate you chief. I'll need a moment to..."

A harsh voice, akin to gravel, began to yell through another nearby com panel. "You insufferable derelict, can you do your job with even a pittance of efficacy?"

The audacity of the comment rocked Elsa in her chair. As far back as she could remember, no one had ever spoken to her with such vitriol. Her composure melted, leaving her slack-jawed. "E-Excuse me? Sir, I don't know what you're talking about but I'm sure it can be handled withou-"

"I'm due back in Earth orbit in 126 hours and your station still hasn't delivered the thousand kilograms of Ilmenite OR the twenty-three hundred kilograms of Aluminum that were due an hour ago!"

Quivering, Elsa hesitated a brief moment before she responded "A-Alright, I'll help you in just a moment... I have to put another conversation on hold." One screen tap later, and the interface emitted a soft chime to let her know she had Chief Gravis' ear. "Chief, I've got a freighter captain here giving me a really rough time. I'll have to get you that drone in a bit, can you manage?"

"Giving you trouble? I've got several tons of fairly gnarly excavation equipment down here. I can set him straight if you'd like."

Warmth from the chief's humor took some of the edge off of Elsa's precarious state. "Thanks chief. With any luck, I'll be back in a mome-"

"Are you ignoring me you daft whore?"

A cold and unquenchable rage gripped Elsa's soul. With it came a growing crowd of jagged icicles, sprawled haphazardly across her station. "I _personally_ filed the report for those late materials the moment we knew a delay was coming. Proper protocol was followed, and _furthermore_ you will get nowhere with such a vile attitude." Knuckles white and seething with fury, the young operator gripped her armrest until the material caved.

"I don't give a damn! Thanks to your excruciatingly slow work ethic and utter lack of competence, our entire operation could fail. Why on they'd let an entire station of weak, fleshy Osterkeer run a space station is beyond me but you miss, are by far the most wretched of the lot."

She hadn't heard the term 'Osterkeer' before, but it didn't matter. The freighter captain's vicious inflection and lack of restraint said everything. _'We work as quickly as we can here... this person. No, this monster...'_

Blinded by rage and paralyzed by fear, Elsa lowered her head into her knees and began to cry softly. Each whimper pushed the thorny array of icy needles further and with greater volume than the last.

"I'll have my minerals now you fucking worthless natural filth. Do you hear me? When I'm through with you, you'll...fzzzzzzzzzzckh"

The radio crackled before it faded into a meaningless white noise. With a thunderous roar that reverberated all through the station, components began to fail spectacularly. Alarm klaxons wailed, lights flickered, and doors became locked in place as the frail space station protested being penetrated by relentless, encroaching spinules of ice.

None of this caught Elsa's attention, not even the loudspeaker warning that life support was soon to fail. A few brave souls had taken to her side, trying desperately to calm her. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't placate her. What finally managed to finally arrest the distraught technician's attention was the curious sensation of... floating. _'Gravity? What happened to the... oh god what have I done?'_ Lips quivering, irises dilated in horror, Elsa took in the carnage she had wrought. Not a single hair on the nape of her neck laid flat. _'This place has been my home for my entire life... and now it is all but in shambles.'_

Kai had finally managed to pry open the door. He kicked off the wall, floating over to the source of all the destruction. "It's alright, I'm here. Gravis told me someone was giving you a hard time, but I had no idea it was this bad." He hugged her close, gently repeating that it wasn't her fault. He knew that there was no way she could stay here like this, but he didn't need or want to think about that at the moment and pushed the thought aside.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I did everything I could... there was just no stopping it once it started."

"We all know you're doing your best. Can you do something for me? I think it'll help you calm down."

"I... I think so... what is it?"

"Tycho is pulling his hair out trying to get the centrifuge thrusters back online, but it's a system you know inside and out. Do you want to go help him out with that? There's no rush since we've all got hand-held thrusters for moving around. I even brought you one. I'll take care of everything here."

"I can do that... thank you." With a silent and respectful nod, Elsa kicked off the desk and made her way to attempt to repair the distressed space station.


	3. Fire and Ice

Deep pangs of guilt bit at Elsa's heart, even though she had made the greatest contributions to the repair effort. Most of the lunar outpost's systems were back to being functional, but Elsa would still catch a glimpse of the occasional mangled wall panel and shudder at the carnage she had wrought. Both her godparents had called her into the conference room to discuss the incident.

Elsa tenderly approached the door to the conference room, recoiling at the awful sound it made as the upper half ground to a halt. After shooting it a disgusted glance, she ducked under the seized chunk of metal and made her way into the room. Surrounding the center of the room stood a long, concave marble table. Gerda and Kai both sat in the middle of the bowed segment, taking a moment to share a concerned expression before turning to Elsa. As she arrived at the center of the room, Elsa straightened her posture, and put both her fists against each other behind her back, braced for whatever discipline was to come.

Kai was the first to speak. "Elsa. Since you were sent to us you've been one of the most dedicated, hard-working people to ever grace our humble station."

"Thank you. I've only ever wanted to do my best." Elsa took a brief look at her surroundings, sighed and then continued. "I really love it here."

A stream of tender memories meandered through Gerda's thoughts. Birthdays, bedtime stories and all manner of familial moments all seized an instant of sweet reminiscence. She held it for just a moment before replying. "And we've loved having you. You're a very... special girl, reclusive to be sure. But you were still a joy to raise. Shoveling frost out of the air ducts was a small price to pay."

Kai's stoic façade was starting to weaken. Clearing his throat, he began: "Which is why it pains me... pains us, to say that you can't reside here on the station any longer." He tensed in his chair, bracing for a wholly unknown reaction.

Shocked, Elsa froze in place. As the emotion began to fade, her face fell into a more defeated state. "I understand. I'm a danger. I almost killed everyone. But... I've never lived anywhere else. I have nowhere to go."

Ambient humming from the circuitry and deep groans of steel being coerced back into place were all that could be heard as the moments wore on.

Shuffling uncomfortably, Gerda drew her chair in closer to Kai's and wrapped her arms around his, as he continued to inform Elsa of what was to come. "We have arranged room and board for you on Earth, on the North American continent in a city called Cambridge. I have connections there with a group that runs a safe house for un-augmented people, just like here on the station. There's a work program, where the residents work on networking and communications technology. I know it isn't your favorite, and I'm sorry we can't do more. But if you stay here, you'll endanger everyone - yourself included."

Astonishment demolished what remained of Elsa's composure. "You... did all of that for me? After I nearly killed you and everyone we live with?"

"We don't want you to leave at all, dear." Came the unexpected response.

Not wanting to face the godparents for fear they'd see through her eyes and straight into the depths of her soul, Elsa lowered her gaze down to the floor. Unsure of what to make of the gesture, Gerda and Kai shot each other inquisitive looks.

"Thank you... I don't deserve your kindness." Drawing her arms across her chest and compressing inwards, Elsa continued: "I suppose I should go get my affairs in order, and pack my things."

"I left a full itinerary and transport access codes in your inbox." Kai said.

"... And I'll see you before I go?"

"Of course."

* * *

Carefully placing the last of the vacuum-sealed clothing bags into the brushed steel suitcase, Elsa pulled it closed, and fastened the locks. Having finished packing all her clothes, she sat for a moment and contemplated which of her personal effects would serve her the best in her new home. The first thing to catch her eye was an odd, pistol-shaped contraption.

_'My IR scanner! I remember building that when I first found out about my cryokenetic tendencies... I love it, but I think I've learned all I can from it.'_

The next thing to catch her eye was a canvas mounted on the wall, a little over a meter on both dimensions. On its surface, etched in pen was the shape of the iconic Mandelbrot fractal. She had drawn it by painstakingly assembling and then programming a series of small, thumb-sized plotter drones to work in parallel and roll across the canvas.

_'I think I'll give that to Gerda. She's enamored with art, and it's the most artistic thing I've ever made.'_

Over by the window, a stained wooden box with a glass pane on top caught her attention. Elsa picked it up and scanned its contents in fond remembrance. Within the box, on a bed of red velvet, laid a series of commendations and medals she had been awarded for her service aboard the station.

 _'I'm definitely bringing this one with me.'_ she thought as she scooped the box into her arms. As she straightened out from picking up the box, the full form of planet Earth once again dragged Elsa into a minor daze. Staring at it, she remarked: "Looks like we'll be meeting face-to-face after all. Although I wish it were on better terms." Out of items to pack, she resumed pacing her quarters anxiously.

The soft, synthetic voice of Elsa's tablet computer intoned: "The _Adelaide_ is leaving spacedock in one hour."

Cautious as ever, Elsa decided that it would be best to review her travel plan before departing the station. She walked over to the tablet that had given her the reminder and pulled up her schedule:

Depart from Luna-Station L1 aboard the _Adelaide_ at 13:30 3/7/2046  
Arrive at Spaceport America, NM at 12:30 3/8/2046  
Board hyperloop unit 1248 at 13:10 3/8/2046  
Arrive in Cambridge, MA at 16:20 3/8/2046

Begrudgingly, the young traveler slid the backpack with all of her effects over her shoulders and picked up the suitcase with her clothes. With a half-hearted, lackadaisical pace she made her way to the doorway. She didn't dare look back, she just raised her comm-bracelet up to her face and activated it.

"Kai... Gerda... I'm leaving to board the _Adelaide_ now."

* * *

Intense pressure waves tore through the air, engulfed by a dancing inferno of flame. Re-entry was always a spectacular affair, the dissipation of colossal amounts of energy safely across the ship's heat-shielding brought vivacious multi-colored flames into existence. The _Adelaide_ bounced, rolled and shuddered through the turmoil as she banked for her final approach.

It was even more spectacular to Elsa, who had never before in her life seen such a powerful, tantalizing display. With each of the ship's three large, sweeping de-orbit banks she had fidgeted less and smiled more. By the last one, Elsa was beaming with her hands on the window frame and he face firmly welded in place above the window. Her precious planet was getting closer by the second and just the very thought brought her to a precipice where beyond lay pure, nerve-wracking euphoria.

"This is your captain speaking. We've finished re-entry and will be landing in New Mexico in 20 minutes. You can get to anywhere on the planet from the station. The hyperloop has connections going to Boston, New York, Seattle and several other US cities. There are also flights to London, Tokyo and just about anywhere else. Thanks for flying on board the _Adelaide_."

And as surely the sunrise, those twenty minutes later the _Adelaide_ kissed tarmac. Hot smoke poured off her wheels in long plumes as she skidded to a stop. Inside, the passengers twitched and fiddled, anxious at being forced to wait just a little bit more.

Inside the spaceport was unlike anything Elsa had ever seen. She walked over to the handrail on the top floor and looked out. The ceiling was one wide, slightly-arched glass curve held high off the ground by thick steel pillars. Everything about the interior exuded slick, polished design; from the micro-reliefed floor tiles to the fluorescent strips along the floorboards of the walls. Hundreds of people were going in all directions, their voices and movement filled the great atrium in a cacophonous wave.

Over by the luggage return, a line of travelers stood in front of the return doors. As each person stood near a door, it would open a moment later with their belongings on a platform. That is, until Elsa made her way over to the doors. She waited... and waited. Nothing. Confounded, she cocked her head and put her wrists on her hips. _'Everyone else was just standing in front of the door. They didn't do anything, at least not as far as I could see...'_

"Hey, quit holding up the line! Get your stuff and get out!"

The interjection brought the confused young woman to a standstill. Cautiously, she turned to face the angry traveler. What she saw did not instill confidence - the man was easily six feet tall and had a physique akin to a freight ship. Sloping down from his shoulders were two thick arms made up of interlocking mechanical parts. Shuddering, Elsa thought to herself: _'Eek... he could throw me halfway across the spaceport.'_

"I'm sorry... I saw everyone else just standing here and their belongings showed up automatically. I've never been on this planet before and I don't understand much here."

The previously angry traveler softened a bit and let out a sigh "Lady, there's an interface for people without an uplink over there. See the kiosk?" He motioned to a meek looking station about seven meters away. "I hope you're not a complete Luddite because it takes a computer interface."

After thanking the man as politely as she was able, a flustered Elsa scurried over to the kiosk, dying to get at her belongings. Fortunately she had her trusty tablet machine in her carry-on, so she was able to work her way through the interface with little effort. She swiftly grabbed her luggage as soon as it appeared and made her way towards the exit of the spaceport.

It was several moments after she had stepped out the front door before Elsa realized anything was wrong. Absent-mindedly she raised her gaze from the ground where it had laid and looked up to the sky. Agoraphobia coursed through her as the monstrous weight of emptiness above came crashing down, the vast expanse of the desert exacerbating her already frayed spatial perception.

_'I had no idea I was this claustrophilic... cripes, I've gotta get to the hyperloop. That should_ _calm me down.'_

As the young woman tore off into the distance, soggy footprints seeping into the hot desert sand were all that remained of the ordeal.

* * *

Anna tapped her foot impatiently. Kristoff was supposed to have met her there by the Charles river over 15 minutes ago. _'If he doesn't show up soon, I'll just run by myself.'_ Leaning against the wooden railing next to her, she gandered out across the water. Anna felt her muscles relax and her mind go placid at the way the morning sun scattered across the waves. Before long she had lost herself in the cool breeze coming off the river to the point where she was swaying unconsciously.

"Hey! Anna, I'm sorry I'm late. There wasn't much I could do about it though, there were some troubles with the T. The red line is having power issues... Anna?"

"Oh... Kristoff! Hi! Sorry, I kinda lost myself there."

"No sweat. Shall we be off?"

"Yeah!"

About half an hour into their run, Kristoff skidded to a stop, and held out his arm to stop Anna as well. His subconscious was putting something together, but he hadn't quite caught up with it yet. He whipped his head off to the right, clearly investigating something.

"Kristoff, what is it?" Anna queried. It didn't look like he was looking at anything in particular - all Anna could see was a fence covered in thin plastic mesh running parallel to the side of a nearby building.

"There are some people back there in that alley. You can't see them because the fence is in the way, but they're there. Check it out in infrared."

"Yeah, there are 4 regular old people... wait! What the heck is that cold spot? It's gotta be at least negative 20 degrees!" Anna's face crunched in awkward contemplation. _'What on Earth could be so cold in the middle of the summer?'_ she thought to herself. _'And why are those people circling it like vultures?'_

"Uh... Anna. That cold spot... is a person. It's just over one and a half meters tall and has four limbs. Not to mention it's walking." The slow and awkward inflection in his voice divulged his confusion at the realization.

"Impossible! Anybody that cold would freeze to death, and they certainly wouldn't be up and walking around."

But the mysterious figure was walking. Backwards. Into a corner, while 4 others closed in on it. Curious as she was about the identity of the mysterious stranger, Anna's penchant for heroism was starting to take over and pull her towards the conflict. Without fail, Kristoff had already seen the gears start turning in his companion's mind. He started preparing to cover her for whatever bold rescue plot she was inevitably going to dive into.

"Anna what do you plan o-" Kristoff stopped in mid-sentence, scanning the area before he cursed silently to himself. Anna was already gone, a flash of copper and black that flew from the ground and onto a nearby fire escape was all that could be seen. Wincing at how little precious time he had to spare, Kristoff bolted off into the distance.

Up on the building's roof, Anna found a clear trajectory to a lower balcony with an unobstructed view of the scene. A single bound later, and she finally had a view of what she was in for. Much to Anna's surprise, not only was the retreating cold spot a person, but an attractive young woman with platinum-colored hair. _'Huh, she's cute. I wonder what's up with the jumpsuit though, who would wear that?'_ Anna thought before hurling herself off the balcony and into the empty air above the conflict.

Whistling wind and the glorious feeling of acceleration brought a rapidly descending Anna into a wave of euphoria. With an overtly audible crash she slammed into the ground, her composite skeleton absorbing the impact gracefully. Confident as ever, she smirked before raising her gaze. "Stop right there, criminal scum!" Anna proclaimed, throwing her head back and having a haughty chuckle. Much to her dismay, she was met with only derision.

"Ha! You think you're some kind of super hero? Fuck off, or we'll do to you what we're gonna do to this freakish osterkeer."

Of the four aggressors, Anna could clearly see that this one was the most audacious. Tall with spiky black hair and a burly physique he was quite the foreboding figure. Her arrival had at least caused two of the others to stop and give each other inquisitive looks, but their leader had remain unmoved at her theatrics. _'I'll have to take him out first'_ she asserted to herself. Without another word she charged him.

Anna's opponent saw her right hook coming and ducked it, grabbing her under the knees and tossing her into the air. Anna sailed along a parabolic trajectory, correcting for the imbalance and landing softly on her toes. She was starting to get flushed and hot, adrenaline pumping through her veins. The vigor compelled her to charge again, this time she broadcast the right hook even more obviously. Throwing her punch off course at the last minute, she feinted to the left, closing the distance and following up with a spinning elbow straight to her opponent's face. Finishing her follow-through, Anna caught a glimpse of the strange woman she was trying to rescue, who happened to be studying her intently. _'She must really think I'm something else'_ she mused, her mind starting to drift from the fight.

Proximity alarms blaring incessantly, Anna spun around just in time to watch a metal fist fly past her face, clipping her copper hair and shearing strands of it off. She cursed under her breath. _'Can't let a pretty face distract me, that'll get us both killed.'_ Un-focusing her eyes, she crouched lower and looked past the new assailant, waiting... no, hungering... for the faintest hint of movement. When the kick did arrive she caught it down low, and in one smooth motion she stepped inwards and threw her attacker along a long, low trajectory across the ground, tripping up the other two approaching fighters.

Dumpsters and various other street furnishings made a raucous choir of discontent at being heaved from their positions. The calamity took Anna out of the fight just long enough to catch a glimpse of Kristoff's car bursting into the scene. She felt a load of pressure come off her shoulders knowing that everything was moments away from being back to normal. Without a moment's hesitation she dashed over to the mysterious stranger who had retreated completely into the corner.

"Get to the car, I'll cover you!"

Sure enough, the frightened young woman took the chance and ran full-tilt straight for the car. Knowing she had to make good on her promise for cover, Anna kept a healthy distance behind. She couldn't help but take the occasional opportunity to taunt their pursuers, sticking her tongue out at them.

Big mistake. She saw her proximity alarm going off again but didn't have time to dodge. Hands grabbed her from every angle, dragging her down to the ground. Out of her periphery she could see the young woman she had just rescued arguing with Kristoff. Thanks to her augmented hearing, she could hear the conversation taking place.

"What are you doing? we can't just leave her there!"

Kristoff responded: "You don't understand, we need to keep our distance. Get in!"

Knowing that her job was mostly done, Anna turned her attention back to the 4 angry cyborgs that were pinning her down onto the pavement. _'Aww crap... this isn't going to be fun.'_

"Hey guys let's not get too crazy, huh?" She pleaded, trying to stall for time. "I didn't cause any lasting damage. Bumps and bruises... you should be fine!"

"Oh no you don't, you're not getting off that easy. You're getting two beat downs for the price of one." The gang leader stood over Anna, grinning malevolently. "Ooh, I'm gonna enjoy this. A pity your friends didn't stay to watch." Emitting a guttural grunt, he whipped his fist back before slamming it down, missing Anna's head by millimeters. She grimaced, taking in the sight of the mangled pavement next to her. Vibrations from the punch rattled her all the way down to her bones. The seismic readings on her HUD didn't help either.

Twisting his fist into the ground a bit to make the message that much more clear, the towering figure stared deeply into her eyes trying to get a read on how badly she'd been shaken by the display.

 _'Come on, come on, COME ON!'_ Anna screamed internally. _'Just another second!'_

That's when it happened. Anna's systems alerted with the following message: "Charging Complete!"

"Do I get any last words?" Anna queried?

"... And what would those be?" He stared back down at Anna, barely noticing the erratic flicker of sparks coming off of her.

"TAKE THIS!" Anna screamed, simultaneously unleashing a massive electrostatic discharge from her hands and into all four assailants. As soon as they fell to the ground she got up and took off out of the alley.

Kristoff was waiting for her. "Anna, are you alright?"

She stumbled a bit before responding. "My HUD is scrambled... I think my chronometric implant is rebooting... But all things considered I'm ok. Let's go."

"You got it... here, let me help." He took her hand and walked her over to the car, opening the door for her.

Anna collapsed into the seat and threw her head back with a grateful sigh. Relishing in the peace for a moment, she closed her eyes and spaced out.

A meek voice broke the silence. "I don't mean to be rude... and I want to thank you profusely for helping me out back there. But who are you?"

Anna opened one eye before lethargically turning to answer the question. "Oh... I'm sorry. I'm Anna! And this is my partner in crime, Kristoff."

"Crime? You're criminals?"

"What? No! It's an expression!" Anna could feel herself getting hot and flushed. 'Who doesn't understand 'partner-in-crime'?'

"Oh. I have to apologize. I'm not from this planet. I'm quickly finding that I don't understand anything about this place."

"You're not missing out on much, this place can be a real mess sometimes." Kristoff interjected.

"Oh don't listen to him, he's such a cynic! We've got our problems here on Earth but there's a lot of good things here too! Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What's your name?"

"I'm Elsa. I lived on the lunar space station until about 5 months ago. I... had to leave."

"Does that have anything to do with you being 20 degrees below zero?"

Elsa cringed, sinking into her seat. The comment obviously hit close to home.

Anna couldn't believe Kristoff's audacity. "Kristoff, TACT!" she scolded. "He can be a bit blunt sometimes... Sorry."

"No, it's ok I understand. I'm a bit of a shut-in myself. I don't do well around new people."

"I think you're doing just fine! I'm very glad I met you Elsa." Anna offered a warm smile. She was both genuinely pleased with having met this interesting young woman, and eager to offer some reassurance at what Anna could only imagine was a difficult ordeal. She noticed that Elsa had stopped wringing her hands and sat up a little more confidently in her seat.

Without thinking, Elsa blurted out: "You were incredible back there! You jumped off a roof, it had to be at least 3 levels tall! And the way you flew through the air when that guy threw you. It was incredible!"

The energy in Elsa's comment softened Anna up even more. "Oh it was nothing, I try to help out whenever I can."

"Don't let her modesty fool you, she's a real hot-rod. You wanna know why we stayed back when she got dog-piled?" Kristoff asked from the driver's seat.

"I have to admit, I thought you were being a bit of a coward hiding back there." Elsa said, a bit harsher than she had meant to.

"I don't blame you. Anybody who doesn't know Anna would have thought the same thing. But she's seriously decked-out. Anna is the only person I've ever met with that powerful of an ESD shock system, AND she's shielded against it. We stood back because I would have been useless KO'd like those other guys back there."

Anna blushed as much as her semi-synthetic skin would allow.

Elsa perked up at Kristoff's comment. "Wait... you mean you were never in any real danger at all?"

Anna smiled and chuckled softly. "Not really... Most of that fight was just for show, to get you enough time to get out."

"Forgive me if this is too bold, but you have quite the fiery personality Anna."

That's when Anna realized that her new friend probably had places to be.

"Do you have anywhere to go? I mean I'm not trying to get rid of you... erm I mean... I don't want to keep you, I'm sure you've got a busy life. But that isn't to say I want you to go... wait what?"

Kristoff chuckled heartily, filling the car with levity. "Haha! Look at that, you've got her all tongue-twisted! You've got to be something special, she doesn't get flustered easily."

Elsa looked at him inquisitively, clearly not understanding him but not curious enough to push for more info. She pulled her tablet out of her pocket and pulled up a map of the area. Pointing to a location on it, she said: "Anna if you would be so kind, I need to go here."

"You got it!" Anna replied, relaying the coordinates to Kristoff.

The car drifted to it's destination, Elsa opened the door and stepped out, heading for her domicile.

"Elsa, wait!" Anna cried out. She wasn't about to let this intriguing new person walk out of her life that easily. She let out a sigh of relief as Elsa turned to address her.

"This is my infolink code. You can call me any time, and I'll hear it in my ears. Seriously, any time. At all. I'm here for you. You don't have to face this planet alone." She handed Elsa the code with one hand, and when Elsa went to take it she put the other on top of Elsa's, seizing the chance to look her new friend in the eyes.

Unsure of what to make of the gesture, but thankful it was finally a pleasant one instead of the abrasive sort she'd been so used to, Elsa remarked: "You two are quite the duo, you know that?"

"Now we're a trio. Don't forget it!"


	4. Osterkleer

An array of muted hues splashed across the far wall of the hallway, the daylight hours had all but burnt away leaving the facility feeling drained and subdued. Through the same window that the light had shone through, the passing traffic of the city was not so diminished, but it did little to excite or invigorate.

Elsa herself was not immune to the day's weariness. There was only so much IT work she could tolerate. Technology was one of her great passions to be sure, but solving problems ignites the fire within far more merely fixing them. After entering her room she slumped back against the door behind her and mulled about what she could possibly do with what little time and energy remained. Lolling her head lazily to the right revealed her workstation, to the left her books. The sight of them incited contemplation.

_'Do I work, or do I study? Ugh, either way I'll be exhausted before I get a decent flow going. I've had enough or one day. Oh, I wonder what that nice cyborg girl is up to. I've been meaning to call her.''_

Elsa trodded over to her chair, plopped down and punched the infolink code into her machine. She fidgeted in her chair as the connection icon spun in place. After it signaled that the connection was established, she leaned over to her microphone and asked:

"Hello? Anna?"

"Elsa! I'm really glad you called, I was beginning to wonder if you would."

"I'm really sorry about that, getting situated here has been a bigger challenge than I had anticipated. Everything's just so different."

"New situations always are. So tell me Elsa, what's your favorite part of Earth so far?"

Elsa felt her demeanor sag meekly. There wasn't much she could say she liked. The work was grueling and mundane, the people outside of the safe house were cruel. She had to stop herself from immediately replying with 'You are, Anna'. After a brief moment of contemplation she offered: "The equipment. On the station we were always scrambling to make due with scraps and shambles, or waiting weeks for something to arrive. Here, I can get whatever I need from the on-site supply store."

"Your favorite part is the supplies? That's depressing. We've got to find something that brings you joy! Nobody deserves a dull life!"

"Well, the food here is nice, it's a welcome change from the synthetic protein packets aboard the station. I must admit I was overwhelmed the first time I had an apple. There was just so much flavor, I don't have the words to describe the sensation."

"You're not kidding! There's so much variety and richness. Oh I could show you so many things. Elsa... are you doing anything tonight?"

"I do things every night... don't you?"

Anna could be heard trying to stifle a laugh. "Not literally you goof, I mean are you available to spend some time with?"

Elsa perked up immediately at the suggestion, as even her affinity for being alone was starting to wear thin.

"Really? You want to see me?"

"Sure!" came the excited reply. "I can't promise it'll be as exciting as last time but I think I'm a good enough host. I think we'll have a great time."

* * *

Elsa stood tentatively by the tall, maroon door. Eyeing it from top to bottom, she let out a sigh and pulled her computer out to double-check the address. _'Yes, this is it... What am I waiting for? Have I forgotten how to do something as simple as knocking on a door?'_

She knocked. No turning back now. Her whole body tensed in anticipation. Soon she could hear footfalls speeding towards the door.

There in the open doorway stood Anna. Elsa wasn't sure why but for some reason Anna just stood there for a moment, scanning her expression. Not even a moment later Elsa found herself caught in a warm embrace. After a moment she relaxed from her previously tensed state. She cocked an eyebrow before remarking: "You are without a doubt the most… affectionate person I've ever met."

Anna simply smiled, and replied with "You looked like you needed it!" before spinning away and bouncing into the house like an excited child.

"You got that right." Elsa murmured to herself before entering the domicile and closing the door behind her. As she turned around, she gasped and stared at the house's interior, an ineffable mixture of old and new. Tall, rustic features met sleek and polished lines. For all it's ornate homage to eras past, something about the undercurrent of mechanical structure reminded her of the lunar station, whether it was from the thin fluorescent trim lights or the nearly inaudible hum of the machinery within she couldn't be sure.

"Well, here's the living room. Make yourself comfy. You said you liked food, so I've got a surprise for you. Stay here, it might be awhile. Oh, and here's the networking key for the house. You should be able to access anything on the internet from here."

"Thank you" Elsa replied, watching Anna as she skipped away into the nearby kitchen. The couch beneath her sucked her in with its plush, soft consistency. Without even realizing it, she had finally started to unwind from the day's stressors.

' _This girl's house is amazing. It's half the size of the station and just so… sophisticated. How does someone even acquire a place like this?'_ As she continued taking in the sights, she came across something that began to tug at her heartstrings.

' _A family portrait. Those must be her parents… She's so lucky. I wonder why they aren't home, it's pretty late. Maybe they're just out and about.'_

Several minutes passed, and Elsa predictably started switching gears. Before long she had her computer out and was mindlessly thumbing through news stories, trying to establish mental model of current affairs on Earth. She discovered that biotech giant Evotech was making waves by trying, rather aggressively, to acquire a smaller competitor called CyberDynamics. There were various other pieces, most mundane but a few caught her eye. An announcement of an open-air holographic art display stood out as the most intriguing.

Just then, something entrancing and succulent wafted it's way over to Elsa. Deep-seated animal instincts she never knew she had ravenously took hold, directing her attention over to where Anna was standing in the doorway, grinning with accomplishment and holding two plates in her hands.

"Anna.. what is _that_?"

Anna smiled at her, and sat down on the next seat over. "Try it first." she said, raising a fork to Elsa's lips.

Elsa paused a brief moment to inspect the foodstuff. It was a small, fibrous chunk of.. something. Pink on the inside, brown on the outside. Whatever it was, the smell was intoxicating, prompting her to snatch it off the fork.

Nothing could have prepared her for the sensory impact that await. In her mind, Elsa scrambled frantically for adjectives to describe the experience, but her experience left her utterly without reference for such a delectable taste. Anna's eyes locked into her own, and Elsa was overcome with the realization that her shocked expression must have looked absolutely foolish.

"Anna, that is absolutely incredible. What is it?"

"It's a beef steak cooked medium rare. I added just a hint of seasoning."

"Beef… wait, you fed me an animal corpse?" Elsa gasped, disturbed that she might have been indirectly responsible for the death of a sentient being.

Anna chuckled exuberantly, mirth greatly exaggerating her motion. "Nope! Nobody around here has eaten a dead animal in forever. It's all lab-grown."

At that, Elsa relaxed. Without another word, she promptly set to indulging in the rest of the meal.

Stretching out and laying down across the remaining space on the couch, Anna settled down and gazed over to a display mounted on the far wall. Seemingly without provocation, it flickered to life. Startled by the sudden burst of noise, Elsa straightened in her seat and cocked her head abit. Sheepishly, she realized that Anna had turned it on using a neural interface.

"You know… I'm still not used to that. Activating devices without touching anything, I mean." She was about to elaborate, but found herself painfully reminded of the experience in the spaceport terminal.

"Huh. I don't think about it much." Anna started. "For all my personal stuff I use a neural interface. I just think and it does what I want." Mind churning in contemplation, Anna scrunched her lips and rolled her eyes up and to the side. "If I touch things, like with buttons and stuff, it's somebody else's. You're a smart girl, you'll get used to it quickly."

' _I sure hope so.'_

Minutes turned to hours, and Elsa found herself enjoying the show they were watching. It was an old, borderline campy sci-fi show about space travel and bridging cultural differences. One thing in particular really stuck out to her, and she wanted to ask Anna about it.

"For a program set so far into the 'future'... Why does everything look so old?"

"Well, it is old. I can't remember exactly, but uh… sometime between 1987 and 1994?"

"And this is what they thought the future would be like?"

Grinning like an idiot, Anna was clearly reveling in the absurdity of how far off the mark it was. "Ha! It's pretty silly, I'll admit. I mean, the 2360's and no augs or genetic engineering at all? I mean come on!"

Elsa could feel herself getting lighter as a bit of Anna's humor leaked into her. "And those computer interfaces! They're just backlit plastic film!"

"And even with all that, there's still a magic to heading off into the stars and just seeing what's out there. I'm kind of jealous of you. I've always wanted to go off-world."

"What a beautiful irony. I can't tell you how many hours I spent in my quarters staring out the window, wondering what it was like down here."

Several hours and a plethora of endearing moments later, the two finished an episode centered around bigotry and malice. Inspired, Elsa worked up the courage to ask a daring question.

"Anna… Can I ask you a serious question?

"Sure thing!" Came the jovial reply.

"Why do people keep calling me osterkleer?"

Elsa noticed a sour expression manifest upon Anna's face. "I don't know how much you know about people Elsa, but whenever there's a minority... they tend to get kicked around." She dropped her head and shoulders shamefully. "Ever since augmentation technology finally got good, just about everybody and their dog got upgraded. Most of the naturals left are either religious fanatics, or just really unlucky people who aren't compatible. I don't think that's a bad thing, but the way we treat purely biological people is f-"

Anna, clearly starting to simmer, took a deep breath to ground herself before continuing: "... It's shameful. Osterkleer is a terrible word. It means 'weak flesh', and it's always said with hate."

Elsa was starting to comprehend a bit more, but the prejudice asked more questions than it answered. "Why though? With all your upgrades, you're practically a god compared to me. There'd be no reason for someone like you to fear someone like me."

"Well, someone exactly like me wouldn't just not fear you - she'd _like_ you. Others though... fall for the propaganda."

"There's propaganda? Why?"

"Yeah. They're whipping up fear, since most people think that if you don't upgrade - you don't care about being alive and have some kinda death wish. Kristoff thinks that Hans is involved, and I agree with him."

"You mean Hans Westerguard? Isn't he in charge of Evotech?"

"Mmm-hmm." She responded. "They made almost all of my systems and upgrades. It's pretty sweet tech, actually."

Elsa stiffened a bit. "I love science and technology... but not biotech. It's so different from everything I'm used to, and has such incredible power. It terrifies me."

Anna paused, looked away and swept a lock of hair back behind her ear. "Do I scare you?"

For the first time ever, Elsa had an immediate grasp on one of her deep emotions. Without skipping a beat, she replied: "A little… but it's an exciting anxiety. Sure you're one of the most powerful things I've ever encountered, but the way you carry yourself is so exciting. You've got a levity that makes me feel... adventurous."

"An adventure you say? Something tells me you could use one, after all that time cooped up in a space station. Oh! I know just where to go!" Anna sprang to her feet and into the air, then turned around and took Elsa by the hand. Bouncing up and down she proclaimed "Come on come on come on!"

"Anna, it's 21:00. You really want to go gallivanting about?" Elsa could feel her nerves starting to fray, her temporal perception starting to lag and she knew that if she didn't get to bed soon, she'd have a rough day the next morning. In spite of this, she found herself getting up off the couch and moving ever closer to wherever Anna was going to take her.

"Oh come on Elsa, 21:00 is nothing! … please?"

Elsa caved nearly immediately. What was one slow, groggy workday, anyway? She hadn't really enjoyed herself in the months she'd been on Earth, and the endogenous high coursing through her from tonight's revelry juxtaposed harshly against the grating monotony of those same months. She looked back at Anna's eager face and replied: "Okay! Let's go!"

* * *

Flashes of silver and red cut through the blackness of the night. In their wake roared the mechanical, otherworldly resonance of furiously churning turbines and compressors.

Mere micrometers lay in the void between utter oblivion and the sleek, powerful car as it tore through the streets, swiftly dodging obstacle after obstacle.

"Anna slow down! You're going to get us killed!" Elsa shrieked.

"Oh come on Elsa, I can pilot this thing just as well as any AI." Anna replied, rolling her eyes and dipping eagerly into the next turn.

"That's no excuse for turning off the autopilot."

Elsa clung to the chair, her fists clasped shut against the leather seat. She closed her eyes and regulated her breathing to a slow, rhythmic pace, desperately trying to keep the minuscule shards of ice on her fingers from growing any larger.

Anna caught a glimpse of Elsa's terror out of the corner of her eye. Sheepishly, she apologized: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. We're almost there."

Anna let off the accelerator, bringing her car down to a more lackadaisical speed. Finally at their destination, they hovered to a stop.

The summer night's cool air, laced with a refreshing dash of humidity, licked it's way across Elsa's skin. Selfishly, she paused to indulge in the sensation. When she did finally float out of the trance, she noticed a smiling Anna standing next to her.

"Walk with me, Elsa?"

Elsa simply nodded, and followed Anna a short distance away from the sidewalk, where they crossed the street and took to the path eastbound, parallel with the river.

After just a few minutes of walking in comfortable silence, the two companions came to a beach side clearing.

"Anna, this place is gorgeous. The architecture of the city skyline is so vivacious, so captivating. That's without even going into how it reflects off the water, scattering into tiny little facets. Like stars in the void."

"Yep!" Anna replied: "This is one of my favorite places. It's super beautiful and always so peaceful. But you know what the best part of all is?"

"What's that?" Elsa asked.

"Plenty of space to run! Whoosh!"

In a flash, all that remained where Anna previously stood was the gust of wind that was her wake. Elsa leaned by a nearby tree and watched as Hurricane Anna tore through the park, twirling, jumping and walking across handrails as though they were a tightrope.

The image of Anna dashing back and forth with her arms outstretched like an aerocraft sparked a rather humorous image in Elsa's mind. Snickering silently, she thought: _'I wouldn't be surprised if a pair of turbines pop out and she really does take flight!'_

As Anna began to venture further and further away, Elsa started to feel a bit unnerved by the growing distance. Impulsed forward by the disturbance, she quickly found herself over by one of the piers Anna was running across. As she arrived, she caught a glimpse of a speeding Anna compressing downwards, then exploding upwards, heaving herself into the air.

Elsa stood frozen in shock at the sight of Anna sailing through the air. The gap between piers was, by her estimation, at least 4 meters. What really drove the event home was not the distance, but the cheerful shout from across the water.

"Come on Elsa! Have a little fun!"

"Anna that's at least 4 meters!"

"4.572 to be exact."

"You have a built in rangefinder?"

"Yep! Watch out, I'm jumping back over to you!"

Elsa lurched upon feeling the wooden planks beneath her flex briefly out of shape. She dipped a bit to correct the imbalance, then stood back up to face her companion.

Anna turned around and said "Hop up on my back! I'll carry you across."

Elsa found herself thankful that Anna had already turned to offer her back, since it hid the enormous blush that had seized her face. She didn't want to ruin the opportunity by questioning it, so without a second's hesitation she hopped on up. To her surprise, her companion barely compressed at all at the added weight.

"Goodness gracious Anna, I had no idea anyone could be so sturdy. You didn't even flinch at me jumping on you."

"No sweat, you're as light as a feather! Hold on!"

The pulse of each stride off the ground coursed through Elsa, delivering a crescendo of acceleration. Before long she found herself confounded by the most curious feeling. Each of her nerves were alight with an exhilarating endogenous high. She bared down and intensified her grip until she could feel every ripple and flex of Anna's mighty form beneath her.

Cascading waves of euphoria imperceptibly shifted to an acute dread, as the sight of rapidly approaching water tied Elsa's stomach in knots. She closed her eyes and held on for dear life, braced herself for a swim.

The deluge never came. Instead, Elsa found herself in a far more familiar state: weightlessness. Below her, an entire ocean of pinpoint diamonds flew by.

She opened her eyes and gasped. _'This is what it must feel like to fly.'_

As soon as the duo hit the deck, Elsa lost all restraint. "Faster Anna! Faster!"

Elsa was immediately struck with the elation of Anna's response: "YOU GOT IT!"

Several piers and one close-call later, and Anna bounded back onto the beach. As gracefully as she could muster, she lowered herself down to the ground and allowed Elsa to step back onto solid ground, where she sat on a nearby bench.

Anna spun around on her heels, closed her eyes and put a hand to her chest. "Thank you for flying Anna airways, I hope you've enjoyed your flight!"

The quip hit Elsa's sense of humor perfectly, filling her with mirth and invoking a chuckle. "I loved every second of it."

Anna plopped down onto the bench next to Elsa and looked up at the stars, while Elsa was too busy thinking about earlier when she first hopped up onto Anna's back. It was the first time she'd had more than incidental contact with Anna. Or anyone, really. She couldn't get the feeling out of her head, and was unreasonably sore that it was gone.

"Anna, you know earlier when I said I was frightened of biotech?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"I think it's because I have so little exposure to it. May I see your hand for a moment?"

"Sure thing. Here!" Anna held out her right hand, and flexed it a bit, showing off it's range of articulation. Hesitantly, Elsa took Anna's hand in her left, and gently grasped just above the wrist with her right, gently manipulating it so she could see it from every angle.

Anna's skin had an extremely fine texture, soft to the touch but with a suppleness that was unlike Elsa's own. She noticed that there were occasional seams separating the patches of synthetic skin, mostly near the articulation points so that the hand could deform, but there were other seams on the palm and fingers, which Elsa guessed had a higher density of nerve receptors.

"This is some of the finest engineering I've ever seen! Each of your digits is so small, but from what I've seen you do the load-bearing capacity is astonishing… And you can feel when something touches you?"

"Yep! I can feel the wind on my skin, just like you can. That's why I can hold your hand without crushing it."

The explanation was met with more fascinated silence. Anna interjected in a gentle, reassuring tone: "You know, you can hold onto it as long as you like."

Elsa stiffened a bit, blushing at Anna's meaning, but Anna just met the gesture with a loving smile and rolled her hand until she had Elsa's in her grasp.

"See? As gentle as needed." Looking back up to the stars, and pointing to the east, Anna asked: "Elsa… you probably know this, but I've never been able to read a star chart. What's that group there?"

"That V-shaped grouping with a circle at the end? That's Pisces. It's got 17 stars. That bright spot beneath it is actually Jupiter."

"Oooh. What are some other cool ones?"

"Well, over by the moon is Aquarius. It looks a bit different from the station… Well, they all do really due to the change in perspective, but I can translate the spatial difference in my mind."

It was Anna's turn to be shocked. "Really? Wow, what did you spend all your life doing up there in that station?"

"Whatever was needed really, the library on the station is excellent. It's got the latest scholarly articles on just about every subject, so I got to dabble in everything from engineering to cartography. I miss it a great deal."

"Call me selfish, but I'm glad you're here."

"Oh… I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for your company. You're an excellent companion, and a fine hostess."

Anna cocked her face into a wry smile, and gave Elsa a borderline conceited look. "I know you're not ungrateful for my company… You're still holding my hand, remember?"

Flabbergasted, Elsa immediately dropped the cybronic hand and threw her gaze up and away from Anna's face. "It… It's a fine piece of engineering is all. Quite nice... I wasn't… I mean, hadn't forgotten!"

Anna laid back and smiled, content with herself. Minutes turned to hours once again, and before either of them realized, 01:30 had come and gone.

When Elsa finally realized this, she shot up in her seat and exclaimed "Curses! It's already 01:47! Oh I'm going to be a mess tomorrow."

"Whoops! We should probably get going, huh?" Anna replied, simultaneously entering a command onto the small remote she was holding. At its completion, the car emerged onto the road nearby, waiting for them.

"First one to the car is a stinker! Um, no wait, last one. Yeah!"

* * *

Even with all of her greatest efforts, Elsa simply could not focus on the task at hand. Error messages stacked up, something was clearly wrong. Perhaps there was a frayed network cable, or the server was simply overloaded from a faulty algorithm, but Elsa's drive to figure out what was causing the extreme packet loss on the network drained little by little, and with each passing minute she spent more and more time gandering out the window and daydreaming.

Last week she'd met up with Anna for the second time and it was a radical departure from her regular routine. Until August, she'd nearly given up on her hopes of Earth being a place full of wonder and intrigue, monotonous work had nearly driven her insane and keeping her cryokenisis a secret was making the endeavor even more maddening. But that night had given her incredible reprieve, and to date, she was still walking on air.

Further compounding the matter was the fact that Anna had invited Elsa back over to her house, and the occasion was only hours away. Shaking her head violently, she tried to clear the fog and get back to work.

And of course, deftly as usual, once Elsa had gotten her mind back on her work, bugs were quashed at an alarming rate. Now that less than an hour remained, she was on the war path, closing tickets, refining blacklists of known botnets, and scanning the network for breaches.

When the clock finally did hit 17:00, Elsa rocketed out of the east wing and towards her quarters in the dormitories. She didn't have much in her wardrobe, it still mostly consisted of jumpsuits and heavy twill cargo pants since she really hadn't caught the fashion bug since the big move. Or ever, for that matter.

Once she was satisfied that her appearance was appropriate, she walked down to the T station outside the dormitory and departed on the Red line. At the Park street station, she transferred onto the Green line, outbound towards Anna's residence. She considered using her computer to indulge in some music during the ride, but thought better of it, not wanting to be caught off guard again.

Elsa sauntered up to the door, ready to knock on it with vigor this time, to make up for how embarrassingly meek she'd been the previous time. Just as she stepped onto the doormat, she felt a vibration in her pocket. Pulling out the complaining computer, she looked at its screen and saw that there was a message from Anna.

' _I really hope she isn't canceling on me. Well, let's see what it is.'_

Anna: Elsa the doors unlocked. Im in the living room. Come on in.

' _Curses. She beat me to it.'_

* * *

"And they've been missing how long?" Elsa asked, trying to get a handle on the timeline of events.

Anna gave her best smile, quivering and clearly feigned. Her eyes gently eased away from Elsa's before responding: "Three and a half months. Now I know that seems like a long time but really they've probably got a good reason."

' _I don't know much about people, but I know something isn't right about this.'_ Elsa thought to herself. A deep, unyielding desire to help fought a ferocious battle against being rude and pushing the conversation into uncomfortable territory. Outwardly, she froze for a moment as she tried to piece together the politest way to say what she had in mind.

"Anna, I'm sure they're capable people, but I can't imagine anything that would require complete silence for three and a half months. I think something is seriously wrong." Elsa carefully watched Anna for any sign of offense.

Anna's breaths drew ever shorter, her lips quivering more and more forcefully. "Elsa, I'm crazy for trusting you with this... but I just need someone to talk to and, ugh, my god you seem so honest." Elsa noticed that the girl in front of her was quaking, almost violently. She put her arms around Anna and tried to soothe her as best she could.

"What is it Anna? You can tell me."

"I don't know if you've heard… but every once in awhile on the news there will be a story about a missing natural."

Elsa started to shift a bit in her seat. "Occasionally. What about it?"

"It isn't just occasional. Someone's… killing... and taking slaves… lots of them."

"What!? Why?"

Disturbed beyond speech, Anna just shook her head in despair before finally finding the resolve to continue. "I don't know, but my dad.. dad would spend tons of time and money trying to get them to safe places… M-Mom would find out where and who was keeping them."

Elsa looked on in horror, first resorting to gently stroking Anna's arm, then awkwardly fumbling the girl in her arms. With each loathsome sob Anna let out, Elsa racked her brain for kind words, but came up blank each time.

"They're dead! I know it! And it's all my fault."

"Anna you know that's not true, you can't blame yourself."

"Yes it is! Just look at me Elsa! I could have protected them from anyone!"

Elsa could feel Anna's deep-set emotional turmoil starting to seep into herself as well. Her empathy for this pitiable young girl began to build into full swing. Just as Elsa's emotional barriers began to come down, she felt the all-too-familiar cold beginning to coalesce.

' _No, no no please no, not now! Any time but now!'_ Instinctively she jumped away from her distraught companion, barely getting away before the bolt of ice that welled up inside shot out and across the room.

Elsa could see the shock written on Anna's face, clear as the ice she had just spawned. She could feel her heart freeze in place, waiting for anything - any sign that she hadn't utterly decimated her first real relationship since the move.

After the sniffles finally subsided, Anna shot to her feet and popped up into the air. "Whoa Elsa… that was _cool_!"

Elsa just stared at Anna, before folding her arms and dropping her eyelids in exasperation. It took a moment, but Anna finally realized her faux-pas.

Doubling over and snorting at her own foolishness, Anna couldn't contain herself. "Haha, not… not what I meant by cool. Oh gosh I'm so dumb. Really though, that was impressive. How did you do it?"

Elsa felt her cheeks starting to flush and her heart begin to race. Her instincts were pulling her in a slew of different directions, but the cat was out of the bag. There was no hiding her true nature from Anna now.

' _Please don't think I'm a monster… please.'_ She took a deep breath before starting:

"I don't know. I've been cryokinetic for as long as I can remember, but it's never been under my control. It does seem to be tied to my feelings though. Apparently I caught some of your despair."

Elsa noticed that Anna's expression had morphed from one of enthusiasm. A pained frown and pinched eyebrows gave away that Anna had discovered Elsa's pain.

"That's why you came here. You didn't just leave the station, you were forced out."

Elsa just stared at the ground. "Yes. I almost killed everyone when it got out of control. There was this augmented freighter captain who was upset at how long it took us to mine his cargo. He took it out on me and I snapped at him. Before I knew what was happening, the station was unraveling around me." She composed herself, and smiled at Anna. "Before I met you, I thought all cyborgs were the same - cold and cruel. Not you. You're the sweetest thing."

That's when Elsa noticed - Anna's eyes were glowing. She wasn't sure why but Anna had just begun to speak, so she wasn't about to interrupt.

"Well, since I guess this is probably my house now… Just a second." Anna reclined in her chair, and closed her eyes momentarily. "OK, there you go. The house is set up to accept your biometrics - you should be able to get in whenever you want. Consider this place a sanctuary - you're at home here."

"You aren't scared of me?" Elsa asked.

"Of course not! You just showed that won't hurt me on purpose. And besides, if it's like you said and your power reacts to your feelings… You're going to need lots of love."

"Thank you, for everything."

It was in that moment, that Elsa knew with unmitigated conviction that she had to help this kindred soul find her lost parents. It was the least she could do, and perhaps Elsa might even find some answers herself.


	5. On the Trail

Falling softly through the frigid air, minuscule shreds of frost meandered past each other in a dazzling array. Each pulse of the vibrating blade chiseled ever more refinement into the immaculate crystalline structure.

Hours passed as the external world faded into nonexistence around him. All that remained: Kristoff, his sculpture, and the exquisite symphony of creative impulses orchestrating the entire affair. Even the tiniest of imperfections in the ice were laid bare before his multi-spectral vision. There was no hiding from Kristoff's insistent perfectionism.

' _Almost there, just gotta carve out Arsia Mons and Eunostos is compl- oh come on!'_

Kristoff's flow shattered at the sound of his infolink going off. Before his vision could completely bleed red with seething rage, he took a deep breath, reminded himself that such anger was utterly irrational, and centered himself.

"Mister Bjorgman? Are you there?"

"Elsa? Is that you? You can just call me Kristoff you know."

"Ah, right. Mister Kristoff. I require assistance. As you may be aware, Anna's been having some parental troubles lately."

Kristoff halted and shifted his focus entirely to the conversation, gravity of the situation taking him out of his work. He began to put his tools away and sat down.

"Yeah. Troubles is putting it mildly. What do you need?"

"She's a curious woman, isn't she? She's got more hardware than a combat droid, and yet her manner is effervescent, whimsical and downright invigorating."

' _You got that right'._ Kristoff reflected on all the years he'd spent with Anna. She'd been his companion on more than one dangerous, foolhardy adventure. And the their more... intimate times had brought Kristoff partially out of his cynical, misanthropic shell. Kristoff was better off having known her, and he knew it.

"Mister Kristoff?" Came the borderline impatient voice.

"Sorry Elsa. You're right about Anna. You just reminded me of it, is all. What does this have to with her parents?"

"Please don't tell her this, but I think I might be... infatuated with her. Seeing her so distraught is upsetting."

Kristoff couldn't help but grin in fond remembrance of the previous evening. Anna had spent hours telling him every detail of their night. Every time he tried getting a word in edgewise, he was met with more elated babbling about pier-hopping and hand-holding. Elsa's motivations were as clear as the sculpture before him.

"You're going to go looking for them, aren't you?" Kristoff asked, shifting upwards and feeling a bit lighter.

There was a pause before she responded, and when she did, she couldn't quite keep… something from bleeding into her speech.

"Yes. I have a... similar situation. I can't help but feel for her. In my efforts, I was able to get their geolocator codes by looking through data here at the house. But I can't get a response from any frequency. Do you have any suggestions?"

Kristoff began to slowly pace around the room, kneading his right hand across his chin in contemplation. "Give me a second to come up with ideas." He said in an attempt to placate an obviously frustrated Elsa.

"Aren't there a bunch of networks that track that kind of stuff? I mean it's a geolocator, so it's gotta ping relay towers at some point, right?"

"Yes." She started, weariness edging into her voice. "I've already attempted breaching some of those systems, but it hasn't been working! I should be able to, but I can't."

"Hey… wait a second." Kristoff started, remembering Elsa's occupation. "Why are you trying to be all fancy about this? You're an IT girl, right? Just flash your LightComm badge and walk right up to one of the relay units. Nobody will check to see if you're even supposed to be there."

"What!? That's madness!" Elsa shot back.

' _Of course not._ ' Kristoff cursed to himself, realizing that Elsa probably had very little experience tricking people. He took it for granted that it came naturally to him, always hiding from the world.

"Well, I don't think there are too many better ways. You could just keep hacking away and hope you get lucky, I guess."

In the unnerving intermission that followed, Kristoff shifted his gaze off into nowhere, mindlessly scanning around to distract himself from the possibility that he was being rude. What else could have prompted such a silence?

"I'll do it." Elsa replied.

' _Wow, she's bolder than I give her credit for. Never thought the timid technician girl would-_

"...But not alone. You're coming with me."

' _Did she really just… she did.'_ Kristoff's jaw hung agape at Elsa's audacity.

"You know… I don't usually just go around helping people."

Elsa's previously commanding voice faded into a more subdued tone, "I'm sorry. I know it's too much to ask, I just got so caught up in helping Anna… I'll do it on my own."

An uncomfortable scene played out in Kristoff's imagination. He saw Anna, furious at the news:

' _She's WHERE? And got caught doing WHAT?'_

' _Yeah, pretty gutsy huh?'_

' _There's no telling what they'll do to her! Kristoff what were you thinking, letting her go alone?'_

The daydream was shattered by a storm of imaginary household items smashing into the wall next to his face.

"On second thought, I think I'll go with you. Got any ideas where we could find one of these towers?"

* * *

"Well, at least you put up a good fight." intoned an ethereal, dysphonic voice. Coming down off the peaks of an adrenal high, Hans satiated the last of his bloodlust by watching the now limp corpse slide off his blade.

Setting his arm to oscillate rapidly, he flicked it violently, flinging the mixture of natural and synthetic body fluids from the blade's surface.

"... But, for a cyborg you sure do bleed a lot. Ugh". He cursed to himself at the sight of his now permanently stained blazer.

Satisfied that the remaining blood had been dissipated, he commanded the weapon back to its resting position. This incited the vast network of servos and mechanical muscle fibers to coax it back to deep within his arm.

Thundering breaths and echoing footfalls rounded the corner nearby. Their owners hurriedly ran to Hans' side.

"Orders, sir?" Asked one of the guards.

"Yes. Split up. Half of you dispose of this poor fool and his wife. The rest are to lock down the facility and make sure none of my stock escaped."

Out from underfoot a small metal orb rolled out spastically across the floor. It came to a stop, righted itself and split open to reveal a holographic projector. The projector sparked to life and began to display an attractive, but still rather average-looking woman in the usual corporate garb.

"Mister Westergard… news for you sir."

Recognizing his secretary Clarice, Hans' transformation was immediate and thorough. His manner lost all rigidity, the modulation in his voice smoothed over and took on a far softer quality.

"What is it? Is it about CyberDynamics?"

"No sir." The woman responded. "The CyberDynamics takeover is on schedule as planned, you should have full executive authority in a week. No, this is a matter of security, not acquisition. Someone's been putting an exhaustive effort into uncovering those geolocators you ordered masks on."

Coolly dismissing the shot of anxiety that begged for emergence, Hans replied: "Is that so? I wonder who on Earth would be trying to find them. Tell me, did you get any information about the attacker?"

Clarice paused briefly in recollection before responding: "Yes, some security scans indicated two individuals at the breach site. A c-level cyborg male, estimated at 22-25 years old and a possibly unaugmented girl, estimated at 19-22 years old."

Curiosity shot through Hans' circuits, delaying his reaction.

"What do you mean… _possibly_ unaugmented?"

"Well sir… if I'm reading the report correctly the her bio-signature contained no EM emissions or metallic masses consistent with an augmented individual. Possible genetic augmentation but with no default profile to compare against…"

His eyebrows furrowing, Hans felt the fires of impatience burn within, even though he knew his loyal secretary wouldn't have brought it up if it lacked importance. His chassis was beginning to quake, his fists grinding against themselves as they fought his dopaminergic anticipation at his plans for immediately _after_ this conversation. Channeling his patience, he reminded her:

"Brevity please, I understand there's a lot of information but I'm a busy man."

"Sorry, but there's only so much I can condense this report. The girl… she doesn't _appear_ to be augmented… but for some reason her temperature readings are constantly spiking in the negative. Whenever her heart rate jumped it was accompanied by a drop to about negative 15 degrees."

"What?! And this is the first time anyone has heard about this?"

"I'm not sure. It's the first time I've heard of it."

"Send the entire report to security chief Johnson and tell him I want to know absolutely everything about this woman."

"Yes sir, right away."

The petite round drone proceeded to re-fold itself into a traveling configuration before scurrying off into the depths of the facility. Hans, now brimming with excitement, turned to the array of human-sized vats affixed to the wall before him and gleefully proclaimed under his breath:

"Soon... it will all come together."

* * *

Anna stared at the glowing screen intently, her gaze threatening to burn a hole clear through the display. Massive swaths of data flew by, everything from contact information to calls, text messages, and GPS data all contained in the blurry stream.

Furiously she swapped back and forth between the computers in front of her and the one built into her mind, desperately searching for a pattern or clue that might tell her more. Each passing moment fanned the flames of rage-tinted inadequacy at her continued failure. Her chair's armrest began to give way under her overwhelming grip.

"Anna?"

The entire conflagration died within her at the sweet sound meeting Anna's ears. She whirled around in her chair, beaming smile adorning her face. Without a second's hesitation, she was on her feet and bounding towards the door.

"Elsa!" she cried, capturing the woman in a frantic embrace, nearly toppling both of them.

Elsa could feel brain starting to short-circuit on her. Anna's radiant affection had been disarming her more and more, and now there was no hiding from it. The warmth of the hug seeped into Elsa, washing over her and flushing away the residue of anxiety from the day's adventure.

Amorous affection was a new feeling for her, and she wasn't going to miss a second of it.

'M _mmm... Anna.'_

Insecurity, ever Elsa's pernicious stalker, rapped at the back of her mind, laughing maniacally: _'How long have I been holding her for? Back off! She's going to think you're a creep!'_

Cautiously pulling back, Elsa tried to preemptively patch up any misunderstandings: "You're awfully affectionate today."

Anna stared back for a moment before laughing and replying: "I'm affectionate every day silly! Besides…" She paused, looking away and brushing her hair back behind her left ear. "I um… really like your hugs. They're sweet."

"You're too kind." Elsa replied, tension evaporating at the revelation that she hadn't caused offense. Remembering Anna's intensity before Elsa had broken her concentration, she asked: "You looked pretty busy when I came in… what were you working on?"

Anna's expression hardened. She paused briefly, throwing her eyes to the ceiling in contemplation before responding: "Oh nothing important. What about you? Long day?"

"Stressful for sure, but completely worth it." Elsa smirked in reminiscence at just how uncharacteristically _bold_ she'd been that day. "I got a bit lonely though. Which is odd, since I typically enjoy solitude. But today, I'd rather have company."

Anna bounced onto her bed behind the workstation and flopped down. "I'm glad… It's been so lonely here since mama and papa disappeared. It hasn't felt like a home since then... Well, until you showed up that is."

Elsa felt her cheeks flushing at the comment. _'What is it about this girl? Even her kindness is augmented to superhuman levels.'_ The mention of Anna's missing family reminded Elsa why she had come in the first place. Grinning, she sat down next to Anna and put her plan into action.

"Hey Anna… I know I'm always gushing over your upgrades… but do you have an NFC port on you anywhere?"

Anna rolled over, offering a wrist to Elsa. "Sure do! Right here, in my wrist. Why?"

"I've got a present, just for you. I know you'll love it."

Elsa practically whipped the data card out of her jacket pocket, her jaw slightly agape in anticipatory bliss. She met Anna's intrigued look, gently caressing the wrist as she held the datacard up to it.

Parsing the data in the card, Anna stared off past the ceiling. Gripped by realization, her breaths grew shorter and shallower. She recognized the geolocator codes immediately, each trace point a glimmer of hope in a sea of despair.. Tears began to well up in her eyes, scattering the glow from her retinal display into a dribbling river of luminescence.

"You… you found them." Anna whispered in disbelief.

Elsa could only freeze in place as Anna shot up and grasped her by the shoulders. The seconds compressed into an ever shrinking period giving Elsa a minor epoch in which to take in her own reflection in Anna's soaked, trembling eyes.

Choking through tears, Anna eventually managed to stammer: "You did this for me? I spent months looking… "

"I had to. When I saw the pain in your eyes, I knew I had no choice."

In an instant, Anna was upon her, pressing her quaking lips against the Elsa's. Anna's grateful, unapologetic kiss triggered a storm of entirely uncharted emotions deep within its recipient. It was a messy ordeal, Anna's hot tears streaking down both of their faces. Something deep and ineffable pulled Elsa closer to Anna. Sliding her hands across Anna's waist, Elsa cradled the bionic beauty before her.

Gingerly pulling back, Anna stared at the floor. She swept her gaze back and forth across the ground, nervously brushed her hair back and gingerly offered:

"I'm super sorry if that was too bold. I couldn't help it." Anna couldn't read Elsa's expression as anything, so she continued: "This is the best gift anyone has _ever_ given me. A kiss just seemed like the best way to say that."

Her visage redder than a swollen star, Elsa tried to mask her decimated composure with some levity. Haphazardly tossing a grin onto her face, she proclaimed: "I knew it! You _are_ trying to court me!"

Anna contorted her face into a wry grin. "I'd be a fool not to."

Elsa straightened up, then leaned back against the wall. She stared up at the ceiling and sighed.

"Anna."

"Yes?"

"I got those geolocator codes by breaking into a comm facility. Breaching the machine's security was trivial once I had physical access."

Anna gaped at her, words piling up at her mouth but dying on the threshold.

"I know. It was terrifying. I did it because I'm… hopelessly enamored with you too."

Elsa felt a soft hand caress her shoulder, directing her attention to its owner. Bright iridescent irises stared back at her, gleaming with adoration.

"It's nice to finally hear you say it." Anna cooed at her.

Curiosity piqued, Elsa inquired: "What do you mean… _finally_?"

"Normally I'm stunted emotionally. Kind of oblivious, you know? Well, when I jumped down in that alley to keep you from getting ground into mincemeat, I had a social enhancement program turned on so I could get a read on read those vultures circling you."

Whatever blush remained on Elsa's face drained. Her eyes opened wide as she took Anna's meaning.

"So um… yeah. I kind of cheated a little. Please don't hate me. I noticed the way your eyes dilated when you saw me. The way your heart rate spiked and you definitely got warmer… fast. I turned it off when the whole thing was over but uh… I had already figured it out by then. Sorry."

The initial feeling of unease faded quickly. It was obvious by this point that Anna would never hurt her on purpose. How could she, after risking her life for someone she didn't even know?

"It's probably for the best. I've never courted anyone before, never felt the loving touch of another. If you hadn't been so forward, I wouldn't have gotten such a lovely first kiss."

Anna gasped. "Your first? And you're how old?"

"21."

"No way! No one as stunning and sweet as you could go un-pursued for that long!"

Elsa shrugged, raising her palms in acquiescence. "I've spent my life with my nose to the grindstone. No one ever had a chance, I suppose. Or perhaps I have been pursued and simply been oblivious."

Anna stared back with a dopey grin and let out a wistful sigh, indulging in Elsa's majestic aura.

Though she was beginning to warm up to the silences between them, Elsa still hadn't quite gotten there yet. To break things up, she offered something else.

"Want another gift?"

"Oh gosh Elsa, after the last one I might be all gifted out!"

"This one will be less intense. Promise."

With that, she closed her eyes and brought her breathing to an infinitesimal amplitude. The tedious process of clearing her mind began, every intrusive thought pushed away until only blank canvas remained. _'It's been awhile since I've tried this. Focus Elsa, focus!'_

Deeper and deeper she slid down the confines of her consciousness until only pure awareness remained. Searching herself, she felt a force just below her sternum. Reaching deeper and deeper into this point, warmth and paresthesia began to flow outwards from it, slowly enveloping the entirety of Elsa's mental space.

Meticulously, she pushed more and more of this energy into a point between her hands until finally, it clumped together into a microscopic shard of ice. Drawing her hands outwards, she tugged at the ends of the frozen clump of ice, extruding it into a gently curved stem.

All across her body, electricity danced across the neural networks in cascading waves. Undulating currents of vibrating energy flowing through the ice sculptress began to intensify. A subconscious burst of fear careened into the entire affair, knocking her off balance.

' _Nonononononono!'_

Pernicious anxiety struggled furiously against inner serenity, shockwaves from the collision reverberated through the halls of the mind, invoking a debilitating feedback.

Desperately cradling her fledgling sculpture, Elsa flashed through scenarios that might help her ground and re-center herself. Vibrating wildly, the infant sculpture inched precariously towards collapse.

" _... if it's like you said and your power reacts to your feelings… You're going to need lots of love."_

' _Love!'_

Unabashedly, Elsa dove into the memory of affectionate bliss from only minutes ago. She let the euphoria permeate through every fiber of her being. Anna's radiance, pure and true, grounded her squarely back within the realm of control.

In one smooth, coordinated exertion, Elsa spawned an array of pedals in a radial pattern from the stem, bringing her elegant floral sculpture to fruition.

Relief poured over Elsa as she let go of the intricate network of mental energy she'd concocted. With what little energy she had left, she turned to an ecstatic Anna and rendered the sculpture unto her.

In between pants, Elsa managed to sputter: "For you!", before collapsing onto the bed.

Anna gingerly held the translucent ice rose up to her own face, breathlessly taking in every nuance and detail.

"Elsa, it's flawless."

"... and it's all your fault. This one almost collapsed, just like all my previous sculptures. Then I remembered what you said about needing lots of love, and everything clicked."

Anna hopped up off the bed and replied: "I'm gonna go put this in the freezer until I can build a proper display for it. You look beat, you should take a nap. I'll get you something to munch on for when you wake up."

Already halfway submerged in the plush volume of the bed, Elsa weakly muttered: "Tha..t's ...a good... ide-"

Anna snickered under her breath at the sight of Elsa flopping down like a limp mannequin.

"Sweet dreams cutie."

_Blackness. Everywhere._

_All that can be perceived, infinitely in all directions is soulless void._

_Somewhere out there in the impossibly vast abyss, microscopic shards of consciousness fire outwards. Desperately attempting to reach another, these pathetic patterns eventually coalesce._

' _I… am' I think, as my first thought spawns into this desolate existence._

_But what, exactly, I am… I do not know._

_A menacing churning can be heard in the distance. It gives me an unnerving, visceral sensation somewhere deep within. I impulse outwards, desperately trying to push it away._

_The impulse is frigid… safe, and familiar. The cold is my shield._

_Suddenly, I can see. Before me is a hideous wall of blood, metal, cable and bone. It undulates ceaselessly in patterns neither sane nor wholesome. Squelching, screeching, and humming it assaults my senses._

_Pushing with every fiber of my being, I desperately try to turn away. I can feel my strength shriveling into impotence._

_I can't escape. I cannot move. I do the only thing I can do._

_I freeze. Grotesque, capricious spires of ice spew outwards from me. I'm trembling violently now, every ounce of energy pushing harder and harder into my icy shell._

_Panic consumes my being, its grip amplified by the grotesque wall encroaching upon me._

_Breached. My icy fortress has been breached. The wound in its walls burns to my core._

_Infuriated, I muster every last trace of strength I've purchase to. I refuse to go down this easily. I unleash the full, raw power of my fury upon the invader._

_But my ice betrays me. My ramparts shatter, the walls collapse. I am laid bare as I am flayed, invaded by inorganic constructs. I flail madly, but the metallic tendrils coil around me effortlessly._

_Defeat does not come swiftly. Millimeter by millimeter, my being is replaced. Regions that once pulsated with life die out - replaced by components that merely register functionality._

_In my final act of defiance before total assimilation, I scream._

"Elsa?"

_Hmm? What? That voice doesn't belong here..._

"Elsa! Wake up!"

Malevolent tendrils faded away, and with them the fog of nightmare began to dissipate. In her stupor, Elsa could make out the blurry image of a concerned face framed by twin copper braids.

"Anna?"

For just a short moment, Elsa felt an exquisitely soft pressure on her cheek. It gently but firmly pulled her the rest of the way back to reality.

"Sorry I woke you. You were moaning, and you sounded terrified."

Anna's tender temperament juxtaposed harshly against the vision of the assimilating horror of the dream. Not all biotech was monstrous. No, nothing about Anna was even vaguely displeasing, let alone monstrous.

"Just a nightmare. Thank you for saving me again."

"Any time." Anna cheerily replied. "Oh and I promised you dinner. It's all in the living room, I've been munching and watching some shows."

Grasping Anna's hand, Elsa climbed off the bed. Anna wrapped their arms together, and then briefly nuzzled her face against Elsa's before escorting her down the hall.

"Here you go! Spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs!"

Elsa eyed the dish selfishly. She was singularly drained, her instincts screaming at her to tear into the meal. Despite her ravenous hunger, civility had not left Elsa and she thanked Anna before eating.

Soon, the room was full of the chatter of silverware, set to the backdrop of some romantic comedy that Anna had seen time and time again. Anna was so deeply immersed in the love story playing out onscreen that she didn't even notice the one unfolding in the room with her.

Soon, the meal was gone. Elsa took a look at the empty plate, lamented it briefly and then discarded it on the table nearby. In her periphery, she caught a glimpse of Anna's heartwarming smile. Her heart skipped a beat.

' _Did the room just get brighter or is it just me?'_

Elsa's gaze moved downwards. Trailing slowly downwards across Anna's slender neck towards her chest. The plunging cowl neckline of her shirt gave a rather unobstructed view of Anna's upper body. Underneath the soft, inviting exterior, hints of the chassis underneath could be seen. Cross-beams that reinforced her clavicles and supported the mass of her arms left a faint elevation in the skin. The overwhelming power of Anna's body roused an inferno within poor, virgin Elsa. The unmistakable throbbing of her heart quickened its pace, pounding deafeningly in her ears.

' _Control yourself. She's alluring for sure... but you're not an animal. Relax'_

Elsa slid over to Anna, taking the arm nearest to her and snuggling underneath it. She wrapped her arms around Anna's waist and held tight. Lying on Anna felt safe, secure. Nothing could possibly go wrong with Anna by her side. With her ears pressed down, Elsa heard the deep, regular pulse of Anna's vitality. It sounded like nothing she had ever heard, yet it wasn't discomforting or uncanny. Quite the contrary, the sound nearly lulled her to sleep.

Abruptly, the movie on the monitor cut away to something else entirely. Smoke and flame rose from an oddly familiar building. Emergency vehicles swarmed around the scene frantically.

Elsa felt queasy, her intuition screaming. Something was wrong.

"We regret to interrupt this broadcast…However there is breaking news. Live on the scene is Cassandra Elizabeth."

"Thank you. I'm here at the LightComm corporate dormitories, where several explosions have rocked the building. LightComm security is currently withholding comment, although they have indicated that the situation is serious."

"The safe house..." Elsa gasped, frozen in horror.

Elsa felt Anna pull her closer.

Cassandra continued her report: "We have an eyewitness here who claims to know the motivation behind the attacks. Can you tell us your side of the story sir?"

A frail, middle aged man replied, clearly shaken from the ordeal. "We barely saw what hit us, it all happened so fast. LightComm is one of the only safe spaces for naturals. That's why they attacked us."

"Who is 'they'?" Cassandra asked.

"I… I don't know!"

"That's all the information we have for now. All LightComm employees are encouraged to contact their immediate manager for instructions."

Legions of incoherent thoughts stormed through Elsa's mind. Even on solid, steadfast Earth, everything could be thrown asunder in an instant. What was she supposed to do?

On the coffee table before the two girls, Elsa's tablet computer started blaring incoming message alerts.

Elsa gave Anna one final squeeze before tearing herself away. She thanked the mercy of the universe that Anna was by her side at that moment. Sluggishly, as though her entire body had turned to lead, she dragged herself over to read the new message in her inbox. Kai had written the following:

' _Elsa… I heard that you weren't at the safehouse when LightComm got hit. I'm relieved beyond words. I can't help you from this far but please stay away from the dorms until I figure everything out. I'll keep you up to speed. Stay safe dear, we love you.'_

Elsa felt her hand being clasped. She looked up and saw the empathetic pain written all over Anna's face.

"Elsa… I don't know what to say."

The crushing weight of despair pressed inwards from all sides. Fighting back tears, Elsa barely managed to reply: "I… I can't go back home. It's too dangerous." Defeated, she threw her head back and stared at the ceiling.

The tears were flowing freely now, each one scorching down her face. Her miserable heart felt like it would tear in two at any moment.

Anna's voice changed drastically at the sight of Elsa's despair. Strong and commanding, Anna proudly declared:

"You're staying here tonight. I won't take no for an answer."

Even through the blurry mess, there was no hiding the righteous fire in Anna's eyes. Clearly, a nerve had been struck.

"Anna I don't want to impose..." Elsa stopped to wipe tears away with her sleeve. "Really I can go rent a…"

"NO! You're staying with me. I refuse to lose anyone else to this!"

Elsa threw herself onto Anna, nuzzling her sopping wet face into the crook of Anna's shoulders. Like a mighty vice grip, Elsa clung on and refused to let go.

"Thank you Anna, oh thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me."

Anna exhaled softly, gently stroking Elsa's arm and reciprocating snuggles from earlier. In a hushed, reassuring tone she replied "I could say the same thing."

* * *

The feeling of waking in a new bed is an alien feeling, Elsa thought. There's a dissonance as the mind grapples with new textures and scents. As the gears of consciousness began to spin up into action she recounted the events of the previous night.

How grateful she was for Anna's presence. Without her comforting embrace, there would have been no shoulder to cry on, no soul to share the pain with. How lovely it was to finally have someone she could share the deeper parts of her life with. That unruly cryokinesis had been misfiring less and less since she'd met this wonderful woman.

Elsa rolled over to her left and fawned over the sight before her. There it was, in all it's bionic beauty - Elsa's guardian angel.

' _I fell for her so quickly. It almost feels like a dream.'_

As if synchronized by some strange force, Anna began to stir in her slumber. Her luscious copper locks tousled across her honeycomb-textured skin. A strand or two was still stuck in her mouth by the time she'd rolled over to face Elsa. The instant their eyes connected, Anna cooed:

"Good morning beautiful."

ust like all the previous times - Anna's unbridled affection made Elsa's elated heart skip a beat.

_How does she keep doing that?'_

"Me? Look at you! Goodness Anna, you're stunning. I'm… so plain compared to you."

Anna winked at her and blew a kiss. "Sometimes you just can't compete with all-natural beauty."

Elsa's heart nearly went into spasms. Anna had jumped out of bed and was clad in only her intimates. Flabbergasted Elsa got a front-row seat to miles and miles of immaculate skin wrapped tightly around a physique that flirted shamelessly with the line between fit and feminine. It certainly didn't help seeing the way her body moved as Anna struggled to pull on a pair of tight-fitting jeans.

Barely a minute of consciousness and she was already in danger of passing out again.

From the adjoining bathroom, Anna called out: "I'm going to CyberDynamics today, since that was the last place you tracked my father to. I'd really like it if you came with me."

For Elsa there was never any reprieve from doubt and worry. The previous night's attacks had only exacerbated this.

"But… Anna. Won't my presence paint a target on your back? If my kind are really so hated that someone would try blowing up the dorms… I'll just endanger you."

Anna's head popped out of the doorway, her hands clasped on the frame. She stared daggers at Elsa. Inevitably though, the intentions behind Elsa's words rang true to Anna, softening her demeanor.

"Elsa…I'll fight off angry hordes for you. Any time, any place. Besides, I'll need you on this journey. You're so smart and skilled. Please?"

It was the pouty face that Anna made that did Elsa in. How could she refuse that face?

"Forget I ever said anything. I'll go. Oh… um, I'm going to need a shower and a change of clothes… may I borrow some of yours?"

Anna practically squealed in the affirmative: "Of course! Ooh, I'll finally get to see you wear something other than those darn jumpsuits!"


	6. Breadcrumbs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week's Elsanna week has a  
> Sci-fi theme for day 6. It seemed like the perfect time to post this  
> update!

_Dearest Godfather,_

_Thank you for checking up on me so soon. I assure you that I am safe. In fact, I wasn’t even in Cambridge at the time of the attack. People have been assuring me that this kind of incident is exceedingly rare... however I cannot shake this feeling of impending doom. I pray it is irrational._

_I know I’ve expressed this endlessly before - but it has been hard making the transition. Everyone here is so different, some people are so strong they can lift thousands of kilograms. Others can peer into my soul. It seems insane but I swear that they can even read my mind. That awful man who infuriated me back at the station isn’t as rare as I’d hoped._

_I’ve been called things you wouldn’t believe. I’ve been attacked, beaten and robbed on multiple occasions. Most of them run away when the ice storm starts. My curse has been a saving grace, ironically enough. Still, it became so bad that I had to build heated jumpsuits just so I could hide from prying eyes. Refuge is scarce when one out of every 6 or so people have infrared vision._

_It’s terrifying, the fear pervasive and inescapable. There were nights where I wished for nothing more than death’s sweet kiss. Nights where I’ve wailed into my pillow for longer than I care to remember._

_I almost gave up. I came within inches of total concession._

_But an incredible ray of sunshine burst her way into my life. I met a young cyborg named Anna. She loves so openly and so deeply it’s difficult to believe. I finally have a shoulder to cry on, someone who will hold me when I cannot hold myself. I never thought I’d ever find someone who would distract me from my work, but alas here I am. She’s bold and flirtatious… yet through some miracle I never fumble or feel awkward with her. I feel so light, so free. I no longer yearn for death’s kiss - I have Anna’s._

_I apologize for the rambling. I’ve never had a girlfriend before. There’s so much to talk about._

_Anyways, as I was saying before - I was at Anna’s house in Newton when the attack happened. She refused to let me stay anywhere else, so I spent the night with her. I even felt safe!_

_I love her so much. And I miss you and everyone at the station just as much. Please give them my regards._

_Oh and more good news! I think I may finally have this cryokinesis under control! I managed to craft a stable construct for once!_

_Love, Elsa._

In her typical meticulous manner, Elsa pored over every line she had written. Multiple checks ensured that her every thought and intention dutifully survived the translation. When she was finally satisfied with the message, she gave it one last read for good measure, and sent it on its way.

Popping and sizzling sounds hissed into existence, fueled by the searing pan underneath. Within, the fluid volume of half-cooked eggs began to solidify into delicious chunks. Anna absent-mindedly stirred the mixture, her attention decidedly elsewhere. Smitten by adoration she lost herself in the sweet, immaculate features of Elsa’s face.

‘ _I could get used to this.’_

Elsa perked up, realizing that something was amiss. Her nose twitched sporadically as she craned her neck around to follow the nascent scent.

“Anna… something’s burning.” she stated flatly.

“Whoops! Oh-my-gosh-I’m-so-stupid.” Anna chattered, flustered by her spat of incompetence. Frantically, she scraped out the the eggs in an effort to salvage them. Most were unburned, but about an eight had to be discarded.

“Sorry about that, I was a little distracted…”

“Oh? By what?” Elsa queried.

With a click and a clatter, the plate in Anna’s hands slid to onto the table in front of Elsa. Anna tenderly planted a kiss on Elsa’s forehead. “Oh, you know, just this gorgeous girl sitting in my kitchen.”

A pang of infatuation, both pleasant and fuzzy, coddled Elsa’s heart as she gazed back at Anna’s adorable face. Subconsciously, it fueled the heartfelt smile upon her face.

‘ _There’s that eye-glow again. Maybe it has to do with happiness?’_

“Given all the other humanoids in the room… Relatively speaking, I’m not cute at all.”

Vacantly staring off into the distance, Anna took a short moment to process Elsa’s meaning. When it hit her, she huffed and retorted: “Absolutely not, and I will not hear such nonsense!”

Just then, as though drawn to the revelry, a familiar face appeared in the doorway.

“Hello ladies. Nice to see you.”

“Kristoff!” Anna squealed, dashing to greet him.

Elsa smiled. She was coming to seriously enjoy Kristoff’s company, even if she did have to twist his arm every now and again.

“Hello again mister Kristoff,” Elsa replied, her inflection having only a hint of familiarity.

Kristoff shot his hand up into the air, index finger outstretched, ready to remind Elsa that she needn’t be so formal. Of course, he’d recently lost count of how many times that exact same conversation had occurred before, so he dropped it.

“Are you coming with us to CyberDynamics today?” Anna inquired.

“I am. I just finished an ice sculpture for a client, so I’ve got some time off, and I wanted to make sure my two best friends don’t get themselves into too much trouble.”

“Trouble? Us?” Elsa remarked. “Never.”

The newly arrived Kristoff gladly took a seat to Elsa's right. He shifted abit, trying to find the most comfortably spot.

“So Anna, what’s for breakfast?” He prodded, leaning forward and beaming smugness towards her.

“Oh no you don’t!” Anna countered, resting the backs of her wrists on her hips. “If you wanted something you should’ve said so before you got here!”

Giggling at the silliness before her, Elsa admired the sight of Anna’s playful dominance. Anna’s angelic form was practically glowing with the early morning’s low rays splashing across her. She caught a glimpse of Kristoff turning towards her, and leaned closer, on her elbow, to listen.

“Maybe I’ll just sneak a bite while she’s distracted by you. Elsa, help me out here would you?”

“No way, I’m not getting involved in tha- hahaha!”

Elsa doubled over at the sight of a salvo of carrots pelting Kristoff square in the chest. Lifelessly, they fell to the table.

“You like carrots, don’t you Kristoff?” Anna quipped.

Kristoff groaned, rolling his eyes and grabbing the nearest carrot. He munched on it rudely, smacking his lips and glaring back at her.

* * *

Even the most inquisitive of investigators will begin to feel as though they’re banging their heads against a wall, given enough failures. And so it was with Elsa, who had nearly worn through her resolve. She stared at her computer, as though her frustration could burn a hole through it. Unscathed, the results of her most recent search continued to taunt her.

 _Birth Records Search:_  
First Name: Elsa  
Last Name: undefined  
City: undefined  
Country: undefined  
Continent: North America  
Date: 10 - 12 - 2,024

_Results: 25,342_

… _. Page 1 of 507_

“Ugh, this is hopeless.”, she lamented, slamming her head back into the headrest. The restraining harness tugged at her, digging sharply into her chest. She was in no mood to care.

“I’m sorry sweetie.” Anna replied, looking at Elsa with glimmering, sympathetic eyes. “I know you’ll figure it out eventually. You’re so smart. I love that about you.”

“It’s no use - I wasn’t born with Kai’s last name, and apparently I’ve never ‘officially’ taken my godparents’ last name. Searching for ‘Elsa Sanders’ gets me nothing, and taking the name out gets over twenty five thousand results.”

“And I take it he won’t tell you what your birth name is?” Kristoff interjected from the back seat.

Elsa’s face hardened as old, festering anger gripped her. While better judgment did cool her temperament, she still wasn’t able to keep all of it from bleeding into her voice.

“Nope. Nothing. He just tells me to listen to the recording again.”

“The recording?” Anna asked.

“Yes. My parents made a voice recording that implored me to never come looking for them. ‘For my own protection’, it said.” Elsa dropped her computer into her lap and balled her fists, flickers of anger beginning to reappear.

“They even used a voice modulator. The distortion was so high I couldn’t tell which one of them was my father and which was my mother.”

Quivering, pulsating pangs of angst left Elsa's stomach feeling sick and queasy. The fight left her, and the air filled with meager, pitiful whimpers while hot tears scorched down her face.

“Apparently being a genius runs in the family.” Anna affirmed, gently caressing Elsa’s shoulder.

Just like that - the wicked wrath withered away, dying at the hands of faith. Anna’s gentle countenance stared back at her, eyes full of love. Every remnant of doubt washed away under her loving touch. How could she do this so easily?

‘ _She’s right! I can do it!’_

Blissfully enraptured and with new found confidence, Elsa moved her head down to the hand on her shoulder and snuggled against it. She gratefully placed tender kisses upon Anna’s soft skin, and admired the woman before her.

“You’re too kind Anna.”

An exasperated groan cut through the intimate air. “Ugh, if this gets any cuter I’m going to throw up.”

Without skipping a beat, nor taking her eyes off of her sweetheart, Anna replied: “Better get a bag, because there’s no end in sight.”

Already waist-deep within the world of contemplation, Elsa edged closer to a breakthrough. ‘ _Of_ _course!’_ Her inner voice screamed in a moment of clarity. ‘ _They_ _had_ _to_ _send_ _me_ _off_ _to_ _the_ _station. Look_ _through_ _the_ _launch_ _records!’_

Before Elsa could put her revelation to work, the car glided to a stop. Desperate to not lose the discovery, she quickly tapped a reminder into her computer and stuffed it into her handbag.

The cool, metal door handle sucked heat away from her hand. Outside was that intense, foreboding world full of uncertainty. Where allies were scarce and the future was in flux. But that isn't what the immediate view indicated. The sky was bright and blue, and all the passerby were more engaged in themselves than eachother. And yet, despite this, her hand was quivering on the handle.

_'You're not alone. Anna's here and there have to be others like her.'_

The exhale that followed cooled her nerves, bringing clarity and focus.

In the expanse of concrete and steel stood CyberDynamics headquarters. Every nuance of the building spoke of refinement, consistency, and elegance. Polished steel spires radiated outwards from the main tower, giving the facility a sharp, bold appearance. Tempered glass walls reflected most of the incoming light, beaming the city right back at itself in a glimmering light.

In the plaza before the building, Elsa noticed a towering statue rendition of the ancient mythical titan, Atlas. Curiously enough, this one was different from all the others she’d seen. Unlike traditional depictions, this Atlas stood tall and erect, holding the planet high above his head in the palm of one hand - daring the universe to do challenge his strength. As she stared at it, Elsa felt herself gently carried to a state somewhere between inspiration and contemplation. The inscription by the statue’s feet cemented the feeling.

‘ _Through ingenuity and patience, the mightiest of burdens shall become insignificant.’_

While mulling about the virtues of patience and ingenuity, the gentle tug of a familiar softness pulled Elsa by the hand towards the front doors. Guided onwards by Anna’s encouragement, she found her way into the building where yet another philosophical display lie in wait.

Craning her neck upwards, Elsa got a full view of thick, rectangular pillars covered in displays. Images of the company’s various accomplishments and projects adorned them. The sight of a young male sitting in a chair engulfed by cables sent shivers up her spine. Across the room, the picture of a professional-looking woman wearing a neural-scanning headband and striking exactly the same pose as a nearby robot called up far less terrifying emotions.

Nearby, a couple of people, engineers by Elsa's guess, sat on a sleek looking bench. She didn't mean to eavesdrop but a rather sensitive topic arrested her attention quite intensely.

“Can you believe the attack on LightComm that happened?”

“No! The last time there was aug-natural conflict was decades ago! What if it gets worse?”

“We've come a long way since then, I think it'll get sorted out peacefully. If someone will just get that awful Westergard guy to quit fearmongering.”

“Ugh, let's talk about something else.”

The confidence instilled by the overheard conversation faded quickly, as Elsa squirmed under the gaze of the receptionist. Something wasn't quite right, she was sure of it. Her intuition couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was afoot, Anna would be hurt and it would all be her fault. She shouldn't have come. 

_'If only I could say no to her.'_

“Welcome to CyberDynamics, how can I help you?”

Anna spoke up in her ever cheerful tone. “Can I speak with Doctor Lancaster? Something came up with my father’s geolocator and I’m pretty sure Ashley can help.”

Sharp, scathing contempt came forth.

“Yes... but Dr. Lancaster is in a sec-3 zone, so that… _thing_ can’t go with you… No offense ma’am, it’s a _security issue_.”

Elsa sunk down into Anna’s side, instinctively clinging to her arm. She was shocked to discover a deep, droning buzz emanating from her companion. ‘ _Anna’s…. angry?’_

Practically snarling, Anna fought to retain what little composure she had: “ _Excuse me_ miss, but my girlfriend is not just some _thing_ , and I’m pretty sure there are laws against discrimination due to one’s augment status.”

“Sorry sweetheart, but company policy is clear. If you really want to push the issue, I _guess_ we could speak to legal...”

Elsa quickly found herself not just clinging to Anna, but desperately trying to restrain her. Between the extraordinary might of Anna’s frame and the possibility of debilitating shock, Elsa started sweating profusely, digging her heels into the ground. Silently, she prayed that something… anything, would distract her indignant girlfriend.

Just as she felt her grip starting to loosen under shards of ice, Elsa got her wish. The debacle was interrupted by a smooth, calm voice:

“I was called here by a Kristoff Bjorgman?”

For a moment, everyone stood transfixed at the good doctor with fortuitous timing. Dr. Ashley Lancaster stood before them, head cocked sideways in confusion. Short, pin-straight black hair adorned a face that seemed neither masculine nor feminine. Emerald green eyes with mechanical irises took in the scene.

Something was different about this person. Elsa couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Ashley's face was smooth, no facial hair and just a dash of subcutaneous fat. And yet the doctor's body wasn't curvaceous, no hourglass shape to speak of. Vocal frequencies gave nothing away either, they weren't discernibly masculine or feminine. She was burning with curiosity, but opted to say nothing, unsure of how to raise the topic delicately.

Kristoff lurched and awkwardly responded: “Yes! Actually, my friend Anna needed to speak with you. She um… got a little distracted by the secretary so I looked up your infolink code on the main desk.”

Kristoff motioned over to Anna to finish his introduction and nearly died of embarrassment. All present were treated to the glorious view of Anna fallen flat on her posterior. She sheepishly clambered to her feet, grumbling inaudible complaints. Kristoff caught a glimpse of a tiny pool of ice evaporating underneath her and shot a curious look at Elsa. She recoiled upon realizing he’d seen it.

Raising one eyebrow in curious contemplation, Ashley eventually addressed Anna. “I see you haven’t changed one bit, Anna. Why don’t the three of you follow me to my office, where we can discuss this further?”

“Absolutely! Lead the way!” Anna cheered, grasping Elsa’s hand and skipping off to follow the doctor to the office. Kristoff, with the last remnants of embarrassment falling away, followed the troupe dutifully.

The young doctor’s demeanor changed the instant the door had closed. Smooth talking and feigned confidence were replaced with trembling hands and intermittent facial tics. All other eyes in the room were transfixed, waiting for an explanation. Briskly, ne approached Anna, grabbing her by the arm and practically dragging her away from a confused Elsa and Kristoff. As soon as the two were out of earshot, Dr. Lancaster whispered:

“Who are these people? How do I know they can be trusted?”

Sensing Ashley’s anxiety, and driven by empathy, Anna gingerly placed her hand on nir shoulder, and assured nir that both of her companions were trustworthy.

“Elsa’s my girlfriend. I rescued her from a group of violent bigots on the day I met her. I don’t think she has anyone else on Earth she can really trust. As for Kristoff… well, he keeps me from accidentally walking into trouble.”

Ashley softened a little. “But not from falling into it, apparently.”

“Oh hush, you.” Anna conceded, gently nudging the doctor with her elbow. Satisfied that Ashley had been placated, she turned to Elsa and Kristoff to gather their attention.

“Elsa, Kristoff. This is Doctor Ashley Lancaster. Ne’s been helping my parents rescue the people who’ve been getting kidnapped lately.”

“Speaking of that… Anna, where’s your father? I haven’t heard from him in the longest time.”

Ever one to wear her heart on her sleeve, Anna’s shoulders dropped and she sighed deeply, quaking a bit on the exhale. This wasn’t going to be easy, but Ashley deserved to know the truth. Sputtering, and offering couple of false-starts, Anna was finally able to spit out the truth.

“I’m not sure. He’s been gone for months now. I think… well, with what he’d been doing…”

Crestfallen silence, steeped in both reverence and despair, descended upon the room.

Elsa was the first to speak up.

“I managed to find some network traces of his geolocator signal. It wasn’t much, as a great deal of the data had been lost, but I was able to track it here. That’s how we knew to come to you.”

Lifelessly, Ashley shuffled over to nir desk, dropping into the chair unceremoniously. Pinching the bridge of nir nose and closing nir eyes, Ashley droned: “You might want to sit down… this is going to be a brain-bender.”

Dutifully, Elsa strode over to a nearby chair, neatly collecting it and carrying it over to Ashley’s desk. Anna, dragged her seat gracelessly to Elsa’s side. Kristoff simply leaned against the wall.

From the top-down, the desk looked much like a shark tooth, having both a cusp for the primary user and a protrusion for guests. Along the dorsal line, a series of miniscule photo-projectors lit up in unison. In the luminous haze of photons, the image of a regional map coalesced.

“A freighter full of people in stasis was intercepted at this location…”

With a swirling motion, a locational reticle came into existence on the map, indicating where the righteous heist had occurred.

“... and re-routed here, thanks to some contacts we have. I gave them all a medical examination and found some pretty disturbing things.”

“Like what?” Kristoff asked.

The map shifted into a series of floating rectangles, each one the outline of a particular patient. One in particular began to glow brightly. The remainder of the data shifted out of bounds while the entirety of the patient’s profile swarmed into view.

“This is patient 41… when I began my inspection the first thing I noticed was the hackjob in installing the MedulNode. Apparently, it had been mounted, and the nerve bundles had been routed into place, but at the interface site there was an overuse of synthetic neuroglia to compensate for…”

“Doctor? I hate to interrupt, but what’s a MedulNode?”

Dr. Lancaster’s eyebrows shot up in curiosity, mouth slightly agape.

“New to bionics?”

“Indeed. I’m unfamiliar with the term. It’s an implant of some kind, clearly.”

“Right. The MedulNode is basically an implant manager. It’s mounted to the skull near the medulla, and the spinal nerves are all routed through it. On top of that, it’s got a series of expansion ports all over. It’s usually the first augment a person gets.”

Anna nudged Elsa to draw her attention. She then turned away, pulling her twin locks back to reveal a sleek metal implant. It hugged the shape of her head closely, and the material at the dermal interface point started soft and got harder the further it got from the skin.

“That’s it, right here!” Anna indicated with an outstretched index finger.

“Anyways… back to the examination. The excess neuroglia was clearly an attempt at patching around a degenerative lipid condition which weakened the nerve splice. Barring some major breakthrough, I’d say this patient is incompatible with a medullary implant. In fact, all of the patients were in a similar condition - in stasis to put some kind of botched augment job on hold.”

The implications of this revelation hit Elsa like orbital debris. ‘ _These people are being kidnapped and modified against their will… with implants that don’t even work.’_ In her mind there were only two possibilities: they were either being sent for processing… or disposal.

“They were probably being transferred to a place where the incompatibility could be managed or repaired. Did the transport vessel have a destination listed in the log?”

Through some nearly impossible cynicism, Ashley’s demeanor succumbed even further to defeat. Upper lip curled contemptuously, Ne threw an expression steeped in hopelessness and disgust to nowhere in particular.

“Yeah… they were headed to Evotech ARL... Fuck, I can’t even sleep anymore. I’ve stolen whatever they’re up to, and they’re going to want it back. On the other hand this is clearly illegal. Not only were these people were kidnapped, the implants aren’t even quasi-solvent.”

With the CyberDynamics takeover happening so soon, there would be no way to shield Ashley from whatever retribution Evotech meted out. Anna stubbornly tried to force it out of her mind, whereas Elsa continued to fret over the revelation. 

Kristoff piped up, ever one to state the obvious. “Sounds like you really kicked a hornet’s nest doc. Might want to start looking into personal security.”

Ashley groaned, massaging an already agitated temple. “... It gets worse. Anna, remember when your father dragged you in here about 6 months ago and demanded I install some updates to your MedulNode?”

“I do! That’s when I first met you!” Anna replied with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, given the foreboding tone of the conversation. The fortitude of Ashley’s somber exterior cracked, albeit imperceptibly, under Anna’s persistent charm. Something almost resembling a smile emerged, if only briefly. Struck by contemplation, Anna folded her arms and defocused her eyes. “He wouldn’t tell me what it was for though. I’m still not sure what it does.”

“That’s what scares the hell out of me… I don’t either. However, each one of these rescued patients has something nearly identical. The changes are all proprietary CyberDynamics technology from our most classified project. As you know I’m a senior neurologist… and I’m barely even involved.”

Everyone in the room took turns exchanging nervous glances. Elsa incessantly wrung her hands, her knuckles phasing between pale and rosy hues. Anna stared at the floor, occasionally forcing a smile and trying to look upwards.

Just like when she first stepped out into the desert all those months ago, the sense of being overwhelmingly small and singularly helpless loomed over Elsa. Cold, crushing despair urged her to curl into a ball and hide. Anna, as though inexplicably linked to her, immediately responded by pulling her distressed girlfriend into a reassuring embrace. 

If her parents both really did fall at the hands of a shadowy figure, Anna knew that continuing down this path could endanger her newfound flame. Throbbing and thrashing in place, her mechanical heart threatened to tear itself apart. Injustice clawed in one direction, desire to continue her parent’s legacy in another. But the strongest of all these titanic forces was the desire to protect Elsa. This innocent, perfect angel had fallen from the stars, and needed her more than ever.

“I’m sorry Ashley… but I don’t think I can get dragged into this just yet. Soon, I think, but there’s… someon- erm, something I need to take care of first. But I totally appreciate all the information you’re giving me.”

Hearing this, Dr. Lancaster retrieved a small datacard and slid it across the desk to Anna where it whirled to a stop.

“On this datacard you’ll find all of my conversations with both of your parents. You probably won’t get much from it. But I do know that Dr. Albert Mueller at Evotech might know more. He wrote the spec sheet for the upgrades I gave you. Oh and whatever you do, don’t ask him about it AT Evotech. No doubt the place is bugged like hell.”

Elsa’s face scrunched awkwardly as she tried to take Ashley’s meaning. Surely, bugs were undesirable in such a location, unless there was entomological research going on… Cursing to herself silently, she decided to ask for more information.

“Forgive me… but why would insects be living in the building? And what relevance does that have to speaking with Dr. Mueller?”

Elsa’s blatant faux-pas hooked into Anna’s heart and dragged it out of the depths of dismay. She giggled, facing Elsa and explaining that ‘bug’ is a slang term for a surveillance device.

Finally having at least a lead, and having more than her fair share of bad news, Anna stood and poised herself to leave. Elsa, in-tune with Anna’s mind, instinctively picked up on this and joined her.

“Anna… your parents did important work. I know you’re not sure if it’s for you but we could really use your help. In the mean time though, I’ve got some patients to un-augment. Not to mention a rather disturbing report for upper management.”

Back in Anna’s car, the trio sat in a mostly catatonic state. The crushing enormity of the meeting left everyone mute and contemplative. Elsa found herself lost several abstractions deep in perturbing hypotheses of conspiracy and malevolence. Time dissolved into oblivion around her.

Anxiously running her fingers across her forehead and into her hair, Anna announced: “This is too much. I’ve gotta go do something fun or I’ll explode.”

“I would like a distraction as well.” Elsa added.

“What did you have in mind, Anna?” Kristoff asked.

With a titillated smirk, Anna watched as the car’s steering handles slid out from under the dash. Kristoff groaned and smashed his hand into his face upon hearing the car’s computer announce the activation of manual driving mode.

“Elsa… you’re finally gonna get to see one of my favorite places!”


	7. Concrete Jungle

Blessed with an eidetic memory, spatial mapping was by far Elsa's favorite mental exercise. Outside, the the city flew by in a dizzying array of shapes and volumes. Her eyes shot back and forth, pausing, scanning, then moving again.

‘ _Northbound up Storrow Drive, banking left past the park-station complex… then across the bridge...’_ she chanted in her inner voice.

Mulling over each of the images she’d tucked away in her mind, Elsa unconsciously rotated her wrist at the recollection of each one. When she reached the end of her list, a sheepish flash of embarrassment shot through her, flushing her cheeks. Once, twice, even three times she tried to reconstruct the last two turns, but to no avail.

‘ _Curses. I missed a few. Hmm… what else to do?’_

Beside her, Anna bobbed her head, singing away gleefully. The song was something Elsa had never heard before, something about a perfect day. Whilst still gazing out into space, pondering how else to entertain herself, she vacantly started humming along with the song.

Grinning to herself in a flash of mischief, Elsa’s lungs stuttered. She fought to stifle a laugh that very nearly morphed into a cackle. Before putting her fiendish plot into motion, she stole an affectionate gaze at Anna, warming her heart and to ensure that Anna remained oblivious. Satisfied with her stealth, Elsa called up all sorts of playful, loving emotions associated with her. Nerves kicked into high gear, tiny differentials of thermal energy spawning all down her arm.

Sinking into the space between consciousness and zen, Elsa channeled her icy energy into a small pool inside the car’s air vents. It coagulated into an ever larger form as she instinctively exerted into it. In a spectacular burst, gusts of chilly wind flew out into the cabin. Icy flakes danced across Anna, kissing her skin wherever her summer attire lay it bare.

Anna squealed, clenching the steering handles in a deathgrip, desperately trying to keep the car on the road. The machine wavered and bucked in protest.

“MEEP! Elsa!”

Even as she tried to push her accomplished grin away, a renegade giggle still managed to sneak by. She, righted herself, and put a single hand on her chest, then replied in the calmest, least conspicuous voice she could manage.

“Is something the matter Anna?”

Anna glowered at her with insincere fury. “Uh huh, trying to play innocent eh? I know you’re up to something.”

“I’ve done nothing!”

“Sure. Not buying it miss. When we get out of this car I’m gonna tickle the heck out of you as punishment!”

Elsa stammered in mock disbelief. “But I’ve done nothing!”

Back in the rear seat, Kristoff mimed as though holding an invisible bag, retching into it at an obnoxious volume.

Finally at their destination, Anna bounded out of the car, twirling around the front of the machine and stopped herself before sprinting off into the lush green field nearby. When she was done, she gently took Elsa by the arm, then directed her attention to their destination, off to the left.

“Whoa” Elsa gasped, completely alien structures lay before her. Taking in the scene, a curvaceous, sloped and concrete-covered terrain piqued her interest. It was a multi-layered plaza, with seating, ramps, handrails, and even odd looking depressed regions. Overhead, the exit ramp for a massive highway ran through the center of the plaza. Thick, hefty beams held it in the air. Perhaps the most confusing thing of all was the emptiness of the place - aside from herself, Anna, and Kristoff, there was no one around. Still, spending time alone with her new entourage warmed her heart like nothing else, and with Anna around, Elsa knew that the unexpected would be thrilling.

“What is this place?” she queried, eyes wide with curiosity.

Anna, now snuggled up by Elsa’s side, gestured flamboyantly with an outstretched arm, sweeping it in an arc before them.

“This… is the Charles River skatepark! They just finished building it a year ago!”

“Park… like a recreational facility?”

“You could say that.” Kristoff remarked, catching up to his friends. “It’s a free-form athletic park. You get to make your own rules here.”

‘ _Recreation… intriguing. I wonder what kind of things one can do at a place like this. Although I’ll admit I could lay in the grass under the trees and read all day...’_

Elsa turned at the sound of items being thrown around the trunk of the car. Through the seam between the lid and the window, she could make out Anna’s form shuffling and sifting through things. Once again given the perfect opportunity to strike, Elsa crouched low and scooted along the side of the car. Each inch she covered put an ever wider grin on her face. Her heart quickened its pace, and just as it threatened to burst at the seams, she lunged out. Sailing through the air, she hooked herself around Anna’s chest. Before Anna could react, Elsa was knee-deep in the process of covering her face in amorous kisses.

“Gotcha!”

“No fair, I was distracted!” Anna squealed, caught in Elsa’s embrace. She let out a contented hum, nuzzling Elsa’s face and luxuriating in the congress of bionic and natural skin. Firmly holding her hoverboard in the grasp of her free hand, Anna asked: “Ready to have some fun?”

“I sure am! But… what is that thing?”

“Oh you’ll see soon enough. Do you like to go fast?”

Elsa recoiled, pulling her hands across her torso and up her sides. “Not really. Sometimes your driving is terrifying.”

That clearly wasn't the reaction Anna was hoping for, but never one to stay down long, discouragement was quickly replaced by a confident smile.

“No sweat then, we’ll start off slow. Check this out!”

With the flick of a wrist, Anna tossed the metal board towards the ground in front of her. Just before impact, it wobbled above the surface, catching its equilibrium. “Follow me!” Anna implored, as she hopped on the board and sailed into the park.

_'Oh_ Wow!' Elsa’s face lit up with in childlike wonder at the novel device. Immediately she began forming hypotheses about it, jogging after Anna in delight. Everything was just so lovely, the planters nearby were full of vibrant flowers, filling the air with a serenading scent. The shade from the highway overhead was perfect respite from the oppressive summer sun.

For the next half hour, Elsa followed Anna around, cheering her on and demanding the names of various stunts, rewarding her with hugs and snuggles when she mastered something new. All the while Elsa modeled the entire park on her computer, calculating various physical properties, as well as scanning in forms and shapes.

Anna had never seen someone investigate a skatepark so thoroughly before. Cocking one eyebrow, she watched in amusement as Elsa darted from place to place.

“Elsa... what are you up to?”

Thoughtlessly, Elsa replied. “Oh... don't mind me, just scanning.”

_'I guess I'll find out soon enough.'_ Anna told herself, putting the curiosity to rest. Eager to get back into the action, she hopped back onto her board and strode off towards a low rail. She rolled her lip under her teeth in anticipation, watching it grow in her vision during the apporoach. How much of the effect was just her flying closer? How much was adrenal response? 

Anna didn't care, blazing onwards. Compressing first, she popped up into the air.

Watching dutifully through the camera on her computer, Elsa recorded the whole event, scampering to keep everything in the frame. Suddenly, Anna went off-balance. She plummeted towards the ground. Elsa freaked out, barely holding onto the thing, bolting off after her fallen love. Hitting the concrete hands-first, Anna threw herself over her shoulder and gracefully rolled to a stop.

  
“Anna are you alright?!?”

“Yeah, no sweat Elsa. Just a fall. I'm good at falling, yanno.”

Anna couldn't help but grin like an idiot, noticing the immediacy of Elsa's response.  _'Wow... she really booked it over here. How'd I get so lucky?'_

“Oh thank goodness.” Elsa said, her heart pounding in her chest.

Anna gave Elsa a quick peck on the cheek. “You're the best.”

“N-no, you are.” Elsa stammered, averting her eyes to the ground.

Elsa diverted her attention away from the adorable, sweet cyborg before her and back to her simulation. Despite her best efforts, It wasn't quite producing the same results as Anna's real-world attempts. She held her computer up above her head, groaning at it in distaste. Sighing, she doubled down her efforts to get it perfect. In a Eureka moment, it dawned on her what the missing piece was.

“Anna, what’s your mass?”

“WHAT?”

“... in Kilograms, preferably.”

“Elsa, that isn’t the kind of question you just go around asking people. They might be sensitive about it!”

Was there no escape from embarrassment? Elsa sheepishly stepped away, grounding her gaze once again and shuffling her feet this time. She had no idea why someone might be sensitive about their mass. To her it was just another physical property to be measured and accounted for. Apparently, she still had much to learn.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to offend. I'm just trying to figure out why you keep falling. The simulation is inaccurate because I don't have your mass.”

Anna giggled, hand over her mouth and eyes tensed in mirth. “Of course you have an innocent reason. I'm 104 kilos, you goof.”

Elsa punched in the value, and set straight to work re-playing the simulation. Sure enough, it was a 99.78% match. She studied the playback intently, eying each motion, from the miniscule to the massive. It took awhile, but her years of experience with mechanical engineering gave her the intuition she needed.

 

“I think I've got it. You keep sliding out because you're too far forwards. Bend your knees abit more and get lower. And lean back. But not too far back.”

 

Anna looked at her suspiciously, putting her hands on her hips. “There's no way you can know that just from looking at a video!”

“It's actually a complete 3d simulation... and the physics don't lie. Try it, I'm sure it'll work.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Anna flew off towards the rail with renewed vigor. Of course Elsa's advice would work, Anna's favorite thing about Elsa (aside from that gorgeous face and legs that go on for miles) was how astute she was. Filled with confidence, she popped into the air, and this time, landed right where she needed to.

“Hey, it worked! Thanks!”

“I knew it would.” Elsa smiled back at Anna, satisfied that she was able to contribute in her own way.

A group of teenagers started casually strolling towards the park entrance, laughing and yelling about the trivialities of their lives. Anna’s instincts nagged her to get the two of them closer to Kristoff, just in case they weren't the kindest of souls.

“We should see what Kristoff’s up to!” She suggested with gusto. “I’ll race you!”

“A race? How is that even remotely fa-” Elsa halted mid sentence, dashing off.

Audacious misdirection caught Anna completely unprepared. That stinker Elsa just stole a head start!

“Oh you little punk!”

“You’ll never catch me!” Elsa yelled, barreling down the park.

Huffing and panting, Elsa finally arrived at the beginner bowl where Kristoff was lazily carving around, not really pushing himself. Anna ‘caught up’ immediately afterwards, hot on Elsa’s heels.

“Oh come on Kristoff, I know you’ve got more in you than that!”

Kristoff slid to a stop at the bottom of the bowl, folded his arms and scowled at her. “You know Anna, not everyone is here to kill themselves showing off. Some of us just want to glide around and relax.”

Anna nudged Elsa with her elbow, quipping: “He’s just jealous that he can’t keep up with me.”

Kristoff, seeing a chance to jab back at Anna, took it gleefully. “Says the cyborg who was just beaten by a natural in a footrace. Don’t even give me that Anna. Besides, you still can’t clear the 28 set.”

‘ _Oh he wants a challenge?’_ Anna thought, her mind burning at being put on the spot. ‘ _I’ll show him.’_ She scanned the park for the grandest, most audacious stunt possible. A few stuck out to her, but none of them quite seemed bold enough.

Anna’s fervent assessments hadn’t gone unnoticed by Kristoff. He peaked one eyebrow, trying to get into her head.

Without taking her mind or her eyes off the oblong, conical ramp one level above them, Anna inched towards the park’s entrance. “Yeah… well I can do something even more rad than 28 set.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she broke into a sprint.

In a flash, Anna was back near the checkerboard-floored area by the entrance about a hundred meters away, two levels above. Kristoff and Elsa ran up the nearby footpath after her, huffing and panting all the way.

Elsa wasn’t entirely sure she was enjoying the direction this was going. Anna’s previous stunts had all ended well, instilling confidence enough, but this new change in Anna’s voice hinted at a deeper recklessness. With each step Anna took away from her, Elsa felt her stomach flop.

“Anna sweetheart… please be safe. I’m having a blast but the fun stops when you get hurt.”

Finally having come to a stop, Anna haughtily threw her head back and called for attention.

“Check it, Kristoff. I’m gonna launch off the flat, over the down ramp and into the far side of the volcano ramp. Oh, yeah and I'll throw in a 540.”

“You are not. Anna that’s ridiculous... Anna?”

Miniscule flecks of concrete shavings flew into the air under ballistic Anna’s heels. Elsa watched, slack jawed in amazement as Anna shot by, leaving a faint draft in her wake. She gasped audibly, frozen in place as Anna took to the skies. Anna spun gracefully through the air, poised and serene.

The anticipatory anxiety was suffocating.

‘ _You’d better survive this… I swear, Anna.’_

Then it happened. Sparks flew as the board dragged across the ground. First, she took the force in her knees, squatting as low as she could. When that wasn't enough, the upper half of Anna's lower legs slid over the lower half, along the seam. The massive springs inside compressed under the load, and as she slowed down, they exploded upwards, giving her another boost.

Sweet shots of victory coursed through Elsa, driven wild at the sight of Anna sticking the landing and riding away smoothly. She let out an enthused wallop, not even realizing or caring how swept up in the excitement she was. She skipped over to where Anna had finally powerslid to a stop.

“Oh my gosh Anna that was incredible!”

Rapt with excitement, Elsa grabbed Anna and went to scoop her up in a twirling hug. She was abruptly stopped, forcefully reminded that Anna was, in fact, 104 kilos. Anna just grinned at her and returned the hug.

Finally having caught up, Kristoff admitted: “I’m just glad you didn’t jump off the bridge.”

“Oh that’s a great idea!”

They both gaped at her in horror, Elsa pulling away and stepping back so she could see Anna's face.

“Anna!”

“Joking, joking. Besides, it’s your turn to give it a try.”

“Me?” Elsa asked. She’d never tried anything even remotely similar before. The confines of the space station left very little room for exercise; she hadn’t done anything more vigorous than running on a treadmill. Not to mention that this was downright dangerous, more of a daredevil's exercise than fitness training.

“Sure! It’ll be fun. No pressure, just a quick ride.”

The hoverboard floated innocuously before her, bobbing in invitation. The image of broken bones and writing pain flashed through her mind, only to be dulled by wonder and intrigue. Trepidatiously, Elsa held out her hand to Anna for support, where it was instantly met by a sturdy, reassuring grip.

“It helps if you get lower. It’s easier to fall if you’re up high.”

“You’re right, that’s an engineering principle we use all the time! Hey... didn't I mention that earlier?”

“Yep, you sure did!”

Excitement coursing through her, Elsa kicked off the ground. The shift in momentum nearly toppled her, but with tenacity and a little bit of luck she managed to stay aboard. Before long the wind whipped through her hair, and with it came the exhilaration of accelerating under her own power. Carving a long, gentle curve, Elsa came about. Carried away in the newfound freedom, she started pouring more power to the pavement.

Foresight can be the damnedest thing. Without even realizing it, Elsa had built up an unsettling bit of momentum and was now hurtling along at a breakneck clip.

“Annnnna! How do I stop?!?!”

Distracted by how best to phrase stopping instructions, poor Anna was oblivious to the woman hurtling towards her. Anna’s face contorted into a fantastic, absurd display as Elsa knocked the wind out of her. Operating entirely on instinct and muscle memory, she desperately clung to Elsa. Over the next few hundred milliseconds, she thrust herself in between Elsa’s falling body and the ground, wrapping herself around her beloved in a protective embrace.

Elsa opened her eyes, enternally grateful that she was unharmed. Anna’s face lay so intimately proximate that her breath sent simmering gusts down Elsa’s chest. Intricate, interlocking turquoise irises stared back at her, panels sliding over each other as they focused to take in every possible detail. Time slowed to a crawl. Elsa was drawn in, held captive by the immaculate beauty before her. The overwhelming pressure in her chest threatened to burst at any moment.

It was too much. Anticipation killing her, Elsa acquiesced to the fires of passion, locking her lips against Anna’s soft, quivering reciprocants. Drowning in allure, she barely registered the sensation of arms around her neck pulling her deeper into the sweet kiss.

Never before had Elsa felt so alive. Her soul was complete, whole; invigorated by the connection to her lover’s. The incessant antagonism of the world’s demands, her crippling anxiety and overwhelming fear all evaporated in the infinite strength of Anna’s love.

What felt like eons later the two souls did finally unravel from their entwine, but not before irrevocably imparting essences of the other. When she opened her eyes, Elsa could swear she’d been born anew. She'd been imparted upon, never again to be the same. As high as can be on serotonergic bliss, she spoke straight from the heart.

“I love you Anna.”

Anna squealed with excitement, bobbing in joyous fits. She wrapped Elsa up in a crushing hug, humming in euphoria.

Her breath squeezed out of her, Elsa choked out a plea. “A-na. I ca-t….. breathe.”

Anna nervously swiped her hair back behind her ear. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry Elsa. I… um… loved you a little too much I guess. heh.”

“Nonsense.” Elsa whispered, gently dragging the back of her knuckles down Anna’s cheek. She placed a far more chaste peck on Anna’s forehead before rising to her feet. She turned to retrieve the wandering hoverboard, but a noisy alert from her wristband informed her that she had a she had an important notice.

Skipping to a stop by her handbag, Elsa pulled her computer out and quickly swiped to her inbox. Anna arrived by her side a moment later, hooking herself around Elsa’s arm and pulling herself close.

“It says the dorms have been cleared for re-entry, and all LightComm employees can return to work for the shift starting in 3 hours.”

Small dots of pressure raked up and down Elsa’s back, tenderly massaging her. She let out a deep breath and leaned into it.

“Do you have to go?” Anna asked, continuing the massage.

‘ _I don’t want to go.’_

“I do. I have an exceptional amount of work to do Anna. They need me.”

Letting out a forlorn sigh, Anna frowned. “I’ll have Kristoff walk you home. I’m gonna stay here, I’m not done yet.” Anna gave her a parting kiss, clasping their hands together.

“Goodbye sweetie.”

As soon as they were out of the park and she knew Anna was out of earshot, Elsa gracefully turned her head towards Kristoff.

“Can we stop by Anna’s house first? I left something there.”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

“Well, here we are.” Kristoff proclaimed, as he and Elsa walked the final stretch to Elsa’s dorm room.

Elsa tensed, caught in anxiety’s claws. Her world had changed so much in the past day. Deep within her chest, her heart nearly stopped at the sound of the door’s lock disengaging. Worse, the constant threat of the building exploding, crumbling or otherwise coming under fire only exacerbated Elsa’s inner demons.

‘ _Breathe Elsa. Breathe.’_

Inside, everything was foreign and unfamiliar, yet simultaneously unchanged from the last time Elsa had been present. Pushing against the anchor of reluctance, she eventually managed to stride inside.

“Elsa...?”

She whipped around, intrigued and unnerved by the sudden tonal shift in Kristoff’s voice. Before her stood the image of a man struggling to translate emotions into words. Determined, yet inhibited. She couldn’t help but notice as he kept fidgeting; opening his mouth only to close it again seconds later.

“Hmm?” She replied.

Kristoff hurriedly closed the door behind him, and began to wrestle something out of his jacket. A forearm-length metallic assembly emerged. Elsa stared at it while Kristoff held it before her. A cursory glance revealed some familiar components: a foldaway buttstock, leather-lined forend, a power cell, transformer and various others. It was clearly a shoulder-mounted weapon of some kind.

Kristoff’s voice cracked, wavering as he spoke: “I want you to have this. I… I…”

Elsa couldn’t help but stare awkwardly, entirely unsure of how to coach Kristoff along.

“I’m not entirely over Anna, even though it was so long ago. The way she acts around you… It would kill her if something happened to you. And I couldn’t handle her heart breaking.”

“I had no idea… She never told me.”

“It’s a long story.” Kristoff retorted, looking away and shifting to a far more withdrawn pose.

Gingerly, a grateful Elsa accepted the gift. Her endless curiosity compelled her to turn it over in her hands, studiously inspecting every millimeter. Right from the start, it felt natural in her hands. The weapon’s grip and trigger assembly had an exquisite texture, the weight of the body was perfectly balanced.

“It’s an EMP weapon. Just like the one Anna has, but in handheld form. Non-lethal, the way I figure you want it to be.”

Elsa just nodded in agreement, still too off-kilter to risk speaking.

In an insistent, urgent tone, Kristoff continued: “Whatever you do - don’t get caught with this.”

A sharp, sudden click pierced the air from the engaging of locks. Behind the cabinet doors, Elsa’s new weapon lay safely tucked away. Barely trembling hands slid down the surface as she turned away, towards the window. Meek, pitiful shreds of light from the city outside fell across her tortured face, casting harsh shadows. Droplets from the nascent rain outside slid down the window leaving long, sullen streaks.

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t intend to come between the two of you.” Elsa clasped her hands together, cradling the ache in her heart. “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Bah,” Kristoff grunted, swiping the air before him dismissively. “you don’t need to apologize for that, you didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, I actually have a date this weekend. Should help me take my mind off it.”

“How exciting! Have you told Anna yet?” Elsa queried, wondering if she’d been given privileged information.

Kristoff stuttered for the countless time that evening. “Well… no. I mean, you know how Anna is. If I’d told her she’d invite herself along and hover over my date. It'd be an investigation to make sure she isn’t out to get me.”

Elsa nodded and smiled, fawning over the image of ever-vigilant Anna watching over her loved ones. Still carrying slivers of Anna’s mental wavelength from earlier she gave Kristoff a heartfelt hug.

“Goodnight Kristoff. And thank you, for everything.”

The silence wasted nary a moment in consuming the room. Devoid of passion or energy, the lone Elsa trudged vacantly to her resting space. Sprawled across her meager bed, pale moonbeams cast dark, harsh shadows across her solemn face. The remaining shreds of the day’s energy fled from her, ripped away by longing, amplified by desolation.

‘ _I miss her already.’_

Far above the city, cradled amongst the impenetrable walls of the Evotech building, Hans’ penthouse suite overlooked the skyline far below. In this place, his inner sanctum, opulence reigned supreme. In the center of the room lay a luscious crimson rug with black floral trim. Above it, propped up on a wrought-iron base stood an ornate glass table.

An array of the most delectable, indulgent meats and cheeses available laid on top of an exquisitely ornate platter. Accompanying the light snacks was a bottle of GABAhol, a synthetic depressant drug meant for those whose neurological upgrades were incompatible with traditional alcohol.

Hans savored just a taste of the beverage. “My men didn’t find anything at the LightComm building. Whoever she is, she’s extremely lucky to have been gone that night.”

Clarice brushed her curly, sanguine-red hair back letting it fall past her bare, tanned shoulders. She swirled her drink around in the glass while formulating a reply. “I feel you Mr. Westergard. I still can’t believe they fell for the ‘outside investigators’ ploy. They let us walk right in!”

Hans let out a tempered chuckle, gazing out the window. “Of course they fell for it. What do you expect from an organization that harbors so many uncivilized animals? They’re soft, tripping over themselves to show how ‘good’ they are.”

Pausing for thought, Hans reflected more deeply on the situation. It wasn't just LightComm. All of North America had become soft in his eyes. Grimacing with disgust, he conflated peace for complacency and lack of drive. Brimming with contempt, he clasped his fist until it began shuddering under the force.

“It isn't just LightComm though. It's everywhere. People are so tolerant, so peaceful that they'll let any toxic ideology just walk in and pollute things. This world is so soft, I could shape it with my fingers.”

“... And I will.”

Clarice slithered backwards in her chair, crossing her legs over each other. “And I'll be with you the whole way. God, you made such a bold move blowing the the place up like that. That girl will definitely think twice before messing with one of our operations.”

Folding his arms in displeasure, Hans chastised her. “Yes Clarice, but that’s not the point. Until I find this girl, I can’t know why she was looking for those signals or who she’s really working for.”

Riled, Clarice immediately reached for impatient sarcasm, hoping to mask being put on the spot.

“Aww you don’t have any faith in me. Well, unlike someone I know, I actually got results. The girl was a bust - no records on her, but her partner has a name: Kristoff Bjorgman. He’s a slacker artisan who lives off the basic income most of the time.”

Satisfied with herself, she folded her arms and arrogantly upturned her nose at him.

Swallowing the last of a chunk of meat, Hans stared at his companion, flashing just the hint of a devilish smile. “Oh Clarice, I never lost faith in you. Sometimes I think you’re the only person in the entire company who knows how to get things done.”

“Flattery? Mr. Westergard, come on, you taught me better than to fall for that. But you’re right... I did score a date with this Kristoff character. The loners are always the easiest nuts to crack.”

“To Ambition?” Clarice offered, raising her glass.

“There’s no finer virtue.” He replied.

In perfect unison, both conspirators clashed their glasses together.


	8. Cracks In the Ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to some lovely anons on Snowchan for helping touch this chapter up. You're all very helpful =D
> 
> Also: I might have to break my weekly update schedule as of the next chapter – I'm running out of pre-made content, and the next chapter is extremely important. It needs to be done right. We'll see what happens.

Polished, cool concrete wicked heat away from silky smooth legs. Draped casually, they trailed upwards underneath a loose, flowing skirt. A soft breeze tousled ruby hued hair, dragging it gently across bare skin. Framed within the drooping locks, piercing emerald eyes glowed intensely. Retinas flexed, modulating the aperture of irises. Before the woman's gaze, walls faded into translucency, the dark room full of glowing yellow forms.

“Have you found him yet, Clarice?”

Within the darkness, humanoid forms refined into ever sharper images. Limbs, musculature and even hairlines were vaguely discernible in the mess.

With a wicked chuckle, she replied. “Almost. There's a heavy material lining the walls. It's almost like they don't want me snooping around.”

Something between a groan and a contemplative hum came across the infolink. Clarice wasn't sure which it was.

“They don't. But I trust it won't stop you, spy girl.”

Through the clutter, a single form stood alone. Facing away from all the others the lonely male occasionally sipped on a a drink. What it was, she couldn't tell. Tingles shot across her body as she made a 'pushing' exertion with her mind. As though hit by the push, hues and shades shifted, slathering the world in bright, saturated tones. The drink before her target sunk to a cool blue.

“He's... got way too much ice in his drink. It's nearly overflowing.” Clarice remarked, curiosity lifting her voice. _'What's with this guy?'_

Undeterred, she continued to stalk her prey with growing interest. Each twitch, every subtle shift in weight held some significance. Every time the waitstaff paid attention to him, he would let out a deep breath and recoil before responding. The interactions were hurried and brief.

With slow, measured speech Hans commented on his findings. “I've been going through some files on this Kristoff character. He's an orphan, and apparently doesn't like people.”

_'Yeah, I picked up on that already. Guy barely acknowledges anyone.'_ She bemoaned being told what she already knew, but couldn't find it within herself to complain about help. As far as she was concerned, she had this man dead to rights. Sure more intel never hurt, but ever one to thirst for victory, she was itching to strike.

“I did pick up on the loner bit, it's like he's allergic to contact or something. I'm gonna have to lay it on thick.”

“But did you know his only 'family' is a group of internet trolls? You know it might be easier just to have a drone do this work. Or you could try scanning for his geolocator, if he has one.”

_'And miss the thrill of the chase? Over my dead body.'_ Up until this point, her life had been one long con game, constant baiting, double-crosses and other sophisticated ploys. How many times had she suckered some rich suit into a business deal, or seamlessly waltzed into company meetings from organizations she didn't even belong to? Seducing a single loner might not be the most audacious task, but it had the same ruthless spirit that got her blood pumping furiously.

“Come on Hans, can't let these skills go to waste. Use 'em or lose em.”

_'Although the geolocator idea isn't so bad.'_ Activating a transmitter in her skull, Clarice emulated the ping pulse of a regular comm tower. Sure enough, several acknowledge signals came back. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the difference in signal strength. Her target's stuck out from the crowd, in tune with nearly everything else about him.

_'Got it.'_

Suddenly, the target twitched again, shifted. As though her piercing stare had actually prodded him through the distance and barriers. He took to his feet and headed for the door.

The familiar chirp hummed in the stalker's ears. Splayed across her retinas, Mark & Track software indicated a successful target lock. Drawing her lower lip across her teeth, she inhaled sharply in anticipation.

“I've got you now!” she whispered.

Precious little time to spare, the huntress sprang up into the air and dashed across the street. Nimbly she dodged passerby and vehicles, each one whizzing past. The tracking program showed the target's movements in the form of a glowing dot in a top-down map of the area. Skidding to a stop near the building's door she pulled her hair-tie out, shook her head and unbuttoned her blazer. Slowly, she creeped along backwards and gazed up at the skyline, carefully orchestrating what would look like an outsider to be clumsy tourist meandering.

Right on time, a distracted Kristoff turned the corner and slammed into the cunning predator. She deftly guided herself to the ground, embellishing with a flop and groan as she hit the pavement. In an instant, Kristoff was by her side.

“Are you okay? I'm such an idiot, I wasn't watching where I was going.” Kristoff huffed.

Clasping Kristoff's helping hand, Clarice rose from the ground. She dusted herself off and pretended to give herself a once over. Locking her eyes with Kristoff's, she gave him a flirtatious smile. In the sweetest voice a psychopath could muster, she said, “Wow, and here I thought the skyline was captivating. I had no idea the city would be so full of surprises.”

Kristoff's face relaxed, and with it his posture slumped. He backed away to a more comfortable distance, leaning as though being dragged back to normalcy. Despite his hurry, Clarice caught him sneaking a gander at her before putting his guard back up.

“I'm glad you're alright. I really should have been watching where I was going. I should probably go before I wind up knocking anyone else over.”

_'Oh no you don't, you're out of your league, boy.'_

“Sweeping them off their feet, you mean?” She replied, forcing her irises to dilate and venting just a dash of hormones into the air.

That did the trick. Short circuited, Kristoff nearly stopped breathing. She let him flounder about in her aura for a short moment, satiating her godlike lust for being in control. Once she had her fill, she got back on script.

“I'm Christine. And you are?”

“I-I um... I'm Kristoff. Nice to meet you.”

“Do you have a commlink or something I can call you on?”

Kristoff's face lit up, his trepidation fading away. He pulled a handheld computer out of his jacket pocket and offered it, transmitter side facing away. “Swipe it, my contact info's ready to go.”

A swipe and an alert later, and Clarice had finally sunk her claws into exactly what she'd come for. She turned to leave, a wicked smile upon her face. Stowing it away, she flashed one last inviting glance at Kristoff.

“Can't wait to see you again!”

* * *

In a dark corner of the bar Clarice sat across the table from Kristoff, studying him through her periphery. He'd done his best to hide it through fake smiles and stilted posture, but there was no hiding the weariness that had set in. _'That won't do'_ she thought, experience telling her that no one was forthcoming under stress. _'I've got to get him somewhere familiar.'_

“Is it just me, or is it really loud in here?” Clarice asked, a hint of disgust carefully placed on her face.

“Yeah, I'm not really one for bars, but everyone I know likes them for some reason.”

“Why don't we go somewhere comfy. Where do you _really_ want to be?”

A pause. Gears were turning, obviously. But why? He was so brutally self-deprecating, so honest when they had first met, this sudden change was getting under skin. Her plans don't get to unravel, it simply wasn't an option.

“It's ok, I won't think it's weird. Really, who isn't weird these days?”

That lightened him up abit. It was starting to look like he was so guarded because he didn't want to be judged for any eccentricities.

“The food's almost here. Wanna wait for it and then take off?”

“Sure!”

* * *

Clarice was still rifling through her mind in a curious attempt to predict exactly where she was being led. As they walked, the surroundings grew ever more desolate. Beams of reflected light caught her eye; when she turned to see, she was met by the sight of broken windows. Doorways were full of plywood boards and splintered oak. Her skin crawled, hoping that they didn't run into any other nefarious characters. Showing off her strength would give up the game, but she still went so far as to come within inches of doubling the power output to her limbs. Just as she went to issue the command, the words “Hold up” pulled her back to the situation.

Kristoff motioned skywards, directing Clarice's sight. As she looked, a once mighty skyscraper stood before her, light from the dying sunset poking through the shambles and shattered windows. Even as she looked upon it, a chunk of concrete fell and bounced off of steel beams.

“We're... going up there?”

“I know it's abit of a hike... but trust me, it's worth it once you're up there.”

Her scan complete, Clarice figured that the top of the building was about 70 stories up, give or take a few. _'Maybe turning my power up isn't the worst idea.'_

The nearest wall had long since been eroded, the resultant hole several meters wide. The bottom of the second floor peeked out. With one hefty kick, Kristoff launched himself off the ground, landing on the floor above.

Clarice took in the dusty, treacherous scene above her. This wasn't exactly her idea of a romantic getaway, and she thanked herself profusely that this was not a real date. At least she still had a good meal to look forward to. She forced herself to daintily test the structure, intentionally but surreptitiously going for the stable footholds last. Slowly, she climbed along the irregular edge until she was able to plant her right arm down onto the floor above. With a grunt, she hoisted herself the rest of the way, and once upon her feet, turned to Kristoff.

“I guess I'm up for a climb. I'm not dressed for it but, hey, what's an adventure if you're prepared?”

“That's the spirit!” Kristoff cheered, practically skipping to the nearby staircase.

_'So he's an explorer. No wonder he's such a loner.'_ Following after him, she started to concoct stories about teenage years full of urban exploration and misadventures. It took a second, but she remembered that city life wouldn't work – she'd pulled the awkward tourist card earlier. What else to do then? She pondered upon this, all while dusty floors and pocked walls slowly scrolled by.

“When I was in highschool I used to get into my fair share of trouble. The old mill buildings are a lot like this, except a bit more tricky. They've been around since the 1800's”

“Those haven't been demolished yet?” Kristoff asked with incredulity.

“Time and money. It's easier just to leave them up. It is kind of terrifying being in one though, the floors are ready to drop out from under you at any moment." The truth ended fairly close to that, however. There were mill buildings near her home town, but most of them had actually been renovated or destroyed. She'd only been able to spit that much out by reading some stories she'd just downloaded.

Above, motes of dust gently floated amongst luminous beams of moonlight. Here too the ceiling had given way; debris littered the floor. Unlike before, the nearest intact floor was at least 8 levels above. While most of the space above was filled only with the structural pillars, leaving any trace of the original floor absent, Clarice did spot several potential footholds. She was none too happy about this, as an actual climb might give away more of her strength than she wanted to.

“I guess we're not taking the stairs this time” She remarked, throwing her hands up.

“Nope, but it'll be quick. Promise.”

At that, Kristoff bent his knees and kneeled down on the ground before her. He pointed at his back, inviting her.

“Hop on, I can scale the wall with you on my back no sweat.”

Clarice's blood ran hot, and in that same second disgust flashed across her face. _'Does he really think... Stay in character.'_ Stowing the aberrant grimace, she reminded herself how good it would feel to get her hands on that damn blonde girl who was threatening her operation. Gently, she hooked herself around Kristoff's back and gave him an “affectionate” squeeze before they got underway.

“Let's go, Kristoff!”

As they ascended, a musky, offensive odor wafted up to Clarice. When the scent hadn't faded after an entire floor of travel, she suspected that it might be Kristoff. Disgusted, she quickly flew through her onboard computer's settings and disabled her olfactory system.

_'That's much better. God, take a shower!'_

* * *

Wind whipped by at a healthy clip, unobstructed now that the majority of the skyline lay far below. Clarice leaned over the sidewall and looked at the ground. The drop would be fatal; no mechanical augments could absorb that kind of an impact.

_'Well, I know he can't get away from me, at least.'_

“Well, now I know why you wanted to come here. What a view!”

  
Kristoff strode up by her side, folding his arms and leaning onto the wall. With the wind gently flowing through his hair, he gazed wistfully out into the skyline. “I love how peaceful it is. I come here when I need to be alone.”

Continuing to discuss the therapeutic nature of the rooftop retreat, Kristoff droned on. Clarice knew better than to be so inattentive, but his prattle bored her to tears. Dreams of the future filled her mind. She could almost smell the pristine, crisp scent of her own office, felt the tingles across her skin as she directed her employees to turn the wheels of the working world. It was all so close. Almost there.

“... what about you, Christine?”

_'Shitshitshit'_ The derelict spy's pulse spiked, her heart racing. What the heck was he asking her? She pulled up the conversation history and skimmed through it frantically. Apparently he'd just gotten done asking her if she had her own special retreat.

“Oh, no. I've always been comfortable wherever I am.”

Kristoff eyed her warily. The concept of someone not retreating from the world when it got overwhelming was suspicious, alarming even. Clarice could see it clear as day, the miniscule snarl, the half-closed eyes and slight tensing of posture.

“You never get tired of people?”

_'He's starting to see too much. Cover it up.'_

Nonchalantly, she leaned towards him, making eye contact with a sidewards glance. “I do get overwhelmed, sometimes. But I just take a deep breath and remember that life's just a ride.”

_'He'll like that, nice and stable. Don't come off as crazy.'_

That did the trick. Kristoff relaxed, slipping back into his wistful contemplation.

“That's a really mature way to handle things. How'd you get so... smooth?”

Memories of philosophy class flashed by. All sorts of Eastern philosophy came to mind, each of them slathered in principles of zen and detachment. Surely some principle from the subject could be whipped up into a satisfying platitude that he'd identify with, but she was out of her element. To her, everything mattered, and detachment was akin to death. Still, she'd need to fake it to have any appeal here. If there was any thing she _was_ good at, it was adapt or die. She wrapped up her fabrication and got to work telling the tale.

“I'd just been around so many people who don't get it. They're all so fake, you know?”

Kristoff nodded and turned towards her in interest.

“One day I was so drained from dealing with everyone. I got really angry about it, felt like I couldn't do anything. I realized that I can't control them. I can only control me.”

_'Right on target. Goddamn Clarice you are fucking awesome.'_

Kristoff began to be drawn in, subconsciously matching even the tiniest, most subtle of her mannerisms. Seeing this, Clarice scooted closer to him, wrapping her arm in his.

“... but you're not like them at all. I can tell. Besides, you're pretty cute.”

“Thanks Christine. It's nice to meet someone so grounded.”

Annoying, incessant alarms kept reminding Clarice that her nutritive needs weren't being met. On top of that, she could start to feel the metabolic drag. In a carefully-measured sweet voice, she recommended they sit down and start eating. Not immune to hunger himself, Kristoff agreed and the two set to it.

“So... what's your favorite part of the city so far?”

Clarice took a big swig of her drink, using the time to think. “The art! It's everywhere! I went to the Art Institute, you know the one overlooking the harbor? I think they called it the ICA.”

Kristoff nodded. The institute had a fond place in his heart. It was his favorite venue for showing off his sculptures, and one of the only places he showed off his true self in public.

“It's a nice place, I really love the elevator near the main entrance. The glass one.”

A soft-spot for the fantastic elevator lay within Clarice as well. It was a gorgeous refractive affair, giving a view of the harbor as well as the elevator's own inner machinations. It definitely primed her to be even more enthusiastic for the exhibits.

“Mhmm, and there's that auditorium-like room with all the educational stations that has a harbor overlook window-wall, that was cool. My favorite thing though had to be a piece that illustrated water phase-shifting.”

Kristoff perked up. “You mean turning into ice?”

_'Knew it. Ice fanatic.'_

Now that she had more to work with, Clarice started getting more animated about the subject. She started gesticulating about how the floating molecules were underlit and covered with a novel paint. He was hanging off her every word now, dying to share everything he knew about the subject.

“Speaking of ice, check this out.” Kristoff grabbed a bottle of water from his bag, and poured it through a cooling unit in his arm. It flew out onto the concrete in an icy stream, solidifying into a respectably sized cube.

Clarice watched as Kristoff's right hand split along the midline, the two halves retreating back towards the wrist. The digits folded back, and a small blade emerged. It began to shiver and quake swiftly. Deftly, Kristoff set to work, shaving a bit here and cleaving a bit there. Powder launched into the air, cascading downwards in a miniature snowstorm. Eventually, the image of an icosahedron emerged, each of the facets having intricate spiral patterns that caught the light fantastically.

“Oh it's gorgeous.” Clarice said, taking in every illustrious detail. “There's so much I love about water. It bends and yields when life beats down on it, but can also become solid and supportive. There's just so much there, you know?” Clarice paused momentarily, constructing more thoughts. “Your friends must all be super jealous of you, being all skilled like this.”

Emphatically, Kristoff shook his head. “Nah, they're all pretty good people. Nice and chill.”

_'Like clay in my hands...'_

“Oh that sounds so nice. Tell me about them.”

 

* * *

Deep footprints in the sand dotted the beach in a single meandering line. It wouldn't be long before they washed away, their ephemeral stay much like everything else. The truth of this was starting to fully occur to Anna, although she'd never say it in quite those words.

Despite her internal turmoil, it really was a most beautiful evening. Scorching red tones met deep purples in a display that was paradoxically ablaze yet deeply calming. A gentle breeze came across the lake, causing the placid surface to break into a glimmering sea of facets.

She looked around, taking in the scene. There was something about it that made her feel small and insignificant, cold, and somehow... empty.

There wasn't a soul around.

_'I hate this. It feels so wrong.'_

Hours ago she'd called Elsa only to get an away message. All of LightComm was tied up in security meetings, data being pored over by swarms of anxious people. Anna's heart wasn't sure it would survive waiting till the weekend to get more cuddles, but there was little to be done about it.

Kristoff wasn't available either, which was extremely confounding. Anna had never, ever known him to not drop everything upon her asking and yet for the first time since their breakup long ago, he wasn't responding. Anna plopped herself down, and let the water lap at her feet.

_'What on earth could he be up to?'_

Whatever it was, it had to be pretty important. Or perhaps not. They were, after all, at the stage in their relationship where people drifted apart. It'd been a year, at least, and he had to start forging a new identity eventually. Vacantly, she twirled one of her braids in hand, fidgeting with it while suppositions came and went.

The dull ache continued to pull at her heart, growing in intensity. Each fresh beat drove the nails of sorrow in even further.

Overlaid upon the image of the serene lakeside view, a warm-colored, clean looking window opened up. Names slowly scrolled by, each one bringing Anna's favorite memory of a treasured friend. The fondness died down a little with each one, and by the end of the list, only a hollow feeling remained.

None of the memories were recent. All those vibrant, happy souls with whom Anna had shared her joy with were now drifting ever further away on the chaotic sea of life. Anna stood amongst the remains of her decayed social life, cursing that the ease of new connections from highschool was now a relic of the past.

 

Sweet, caring, calming Elsa was still a week away. The promise of returned affection, of shameless adoration, so close she could taste it.

_'Ugh, a whole fracking week!'_

Shouting an angry grunt, Anna stabbed her hand into the sand below, grabbing a fistful of the stuff and hurling it as hard as she could. It whizzed in a long arc, partially disintegrating, before crashing into the water with a satisfying splash.

Her face flush red, Anna let out a discontented chuckle at her childishness. “Wow... I'm bad at waiting, huh?”

Anger now finally reined in, the hopeless romantic leaned back on her hands. The fire in the sky burned away her earlier sorrows, invigorating the flame within the heart. As she gazed skywards, fanciful dreams played out upon the canvas of sky.

_Sometime, on a lovely night after a quick snack, she saw herself leading Elsa by the hand out to the car. Of course, Elsa would play twenty questions, her inquisitive nature always working to confound any attempt at surprise. It didn't faze Anna, who dutifully kept silent the entire ride, aside from occasional snickers and proclamations of “you're gonna love this”. Each guess Elsa made just caused Anna to love her even more, entrenching the desire to surprise._

_Finally, they arrived. Anna scooped Elsa up in her arms and dashed off into the building before Elsa could read where they were, scuttled up the stairs and through the seats. She plopped her 'passenger' down into a seat and waited. Patient, thrilled eyes watched for Elsa to realize what the surprise was._

_Tiny pinpoints of light spawned in the space above, glowing ever brighter. They ballooned into fully featured projections of celestial bodies, a complete replication of the dizzying majesty of space. Anna gazed in delight, Elsa's expression lit up in wonder. It was a familiar sight, as any planetarium would be to a space native, only on a far grander scale._

_'Elsa?'_

_'Yes?'_

_'I wanna explore the stars with you.'_

In other fantasies, they ran away together. It would be so easy to leave it all behind, to build everything anew.

But that illusion was shattered nearly as soon as it had formed.

Hans.

A small, dedicated group near and dear to Anna was throwing wrenches into the gears of his machine, whatever that was. Anna knew he wouldn't take it lying down, and the fallout, goodness, the fallout. It would be bad for everyone. Especially the helpless naturals with no means to fight back. Anna's conscience screamed at her for even entertaining the thought of running.

_'But it would be so much easier that way!'_

Anna rubbed her temples, trying to massage away the nascent headache. The sun was starting to peek away from behind the treeline now, and no doubt the beach would be intolerably invaded by mosquitoes any minute.

Back in the house, Anna was briskly trotting through the hallway, eager to submerse herself in junk entertainment. Anything to pass the time till the weekend. A photo on the wall caught her attention, pulling her off path.

“Oh, I remember this!” Anna mentioned aloud.

The picture was a shot of their family vacation to Cape Cod, spring of '42. Anna had been 14 at the time, and a little flustered over typical teenage affairs. Despite this, she had succumbed to enjoyment and merriment pretty quickly once the car ride was over.

Even through the rose-tinted goggles, something new struck her. She scrunched her face in contemplation, cocking her head and craning her neck to look from different angles. What on earth was it that she couldn't pin down?

_'Wait, what?... Papa's wearing 20 year old tech.'_

Same thing with her mother, outdated technology. Then she looked back at herself in the photograph. Cutting edge augments. On a 14 year old.

Anna's blood ran cold, blindsided by dizziness and a queasy stomach. Her innocent naivety had been viciously stripped clean and laid bare by awful truth. Of course she was always the fastest and strongest of all her classmates, she'd been been gifted the best tech money could buy! And she hadn't even appreciated it! Worse, those who mattered most suffered for her benefit, and like always, she was as oblivious as can be. She swore at her selfishness, nearly punching a hole in the wall before cooling her jets.

Sluggishly trudging into her room, Anna muttered under her breath. “What could Elsa possibly see in me? I don't deserve her...”

The angst was short-lived, however, as revelation wasn't quite done pummeling her. Anna perked up, consumed in the eureka moment. There was a very good reason for the sacrifice.

“Holy crap! I was _built_ to fix this mess!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of her dressing mirror. Within Anna finally saw herself as she truly was, the fog of self-loathing and naivety cast aside. She took in every detail, legs with super heavy-duty springs to land from nearly any height, mechanical arms that could knock a hole through solid concrete. But there was more here than raw power, it was raw power wrapped around a gentle, loving, and unmistakably _human_ soul, a cyborg with a heart of gold. As she gazed deep into the reflection of her soul in the mirror, her nerves tingled and buzzed with energy. Her soul soared high, purpose and conviction the wind under her wings.

With Elsa by her side, she was unstoppable. Taking down Hans was her destiny.

_'Speaking of Elsa...'_

With a heavy thud, Anna fell into the seat of her desk chair. She leaned back, got comfy and connected to the central requisition network. Surely there was a gift worthy of her most precious love. Whatever it was, she'd need to figure it out before the weekend. Anna was quaking with excitement, her breaths shallow and rapid. It didn't take her long to get lost in the process.

But that didn't stop a familiar alert code from pulling her out of the zone.

“Hey, Anna! It's Kristoff. Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“Nah, I should be good. What's up?”

“I've got someone I want you to meet.”


	9. CIHKAL

_Author's Notes: This chapter would have been a great deal longer if I'd fully indulged myself. It's still bigger than a 'normal' chapter though because it's pretty important to the story. Take your time with it._

* * *

The corporate world was infamous for being a test of patience. Ever since the attack on LightComm, Elsa had been forced to go over security procedures and attend countless meetings full of the same information over and over again. She’d been inundated with information, to the point where her brain had long since shut off.

“... At the end of this review, the new procedures and protocols will be in your inboxes for immediate review. You'll all have to re-certify...”

_'Lovely. More testing, less computing. Remind me why I'm here again?'_

The young technician's mind was far from the present, and wandering further away by the minute.

Its wandering had started innocently enough; she had started thinking about faking biometrics. Whoever had gotten in had probably impersonated an employee, using stolen data.

She slouched back in her chair, the leather squeaking softly. Fancy took flight, soaring through internal skies and personal airspace. When it touched down, Elsa found herself in a practically abandoned library, knee deep in literature. To her left, Anna was casually draped across the table, arm dangling over the edge. Through the hours, Elsa would read aloud to her, sneaking smiles and playful acting into the story's pauses. Anna smiled back up at her, slowly kicking her feet back and forth, resting her head on her other hand. Elsa's mindscape brightened, her mood lifted by the thrilling realization that communication didn't have to be efficient to be fun.

“... And that goes double for you, Miss Sanders.”

The intrepid daydreamer fought successfully to keep herself from snarling, clinging to her romanticized bliss.

“Why might that be, sir?”

Her supervisor looked back at her, but he seemed reticent. 

“Everyone else is dismissed. The rec areas are all still open, I know this was a pretty boring meeting. Go blow off some steam, but make sure you all get to your certs.”

This didn't bode well. Why was she being singled out? What could have possibly happened?

“What is it?” she asked.

The supervisor relaxed his posture a little bit, trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

“Your employee card was used without authorization a little over a week ago at a fusion center in Medford.”

Fear jittered across her nerves, and if the building hadn't been fitted with such a robust air conditioning system, she might have given that away.

“I see.”

“According to our corporate policy, you don't have to say anything regarding this, unless the investigation calls you specifically. But your requisition privileges, access to company databases and all partner libraries are suspended until further notice.”

Everything froze, her pulse included. No database access? How was she supposed to get at the launch records?

Putting her troubles aside, she straightened and put her hands behind her back.

“I understand.”

A disheartened grunt passed Elsa's lips as the flat of her back hit soft sheets and fluffy bedding. Her hair sprawled all around in a haphazard array, forming a sea of angelic white.

_'Damn my ineptitude. I should have known better.'_

Kicking herself wasn't going to solve anything, and besides, she wasn't all that much of a masochist. Her heart ached for the few who had been hurt, but no one had died, and really, it was pretty easy to put that out of her mind when she remembered Anna's reaction to her 'gift'.

Something wasn't quite right though... 

Elsa stared vacantly at the ceiling, completely ignoring its intricacies as well as the soft glow from the overhead lamps. Her mind churned in contemplation.

_'A pitifully ineffectual 'terrorist' attack... right after I acquire data on someone Hans is hunting? When there hasn't been anything like it in how long?'_

That was far too convenient to ignore. Clearly, someone was conspiring.

It was getting harder to breathe by the second. This was happening so fast, the world was rushing in on her from all sides, voracious and hungry. Each time she had found even the most modest of sanctuaries, the will of the cosmos threatened to tear it away.

It hadn't occurred to her yet, but she was quaking. If the bombing was any indication, once Evotech found her... her psyche blocked the image to keep her from unraveling into madness.

Would any of it matter, though? Running meant abandoning others like her.

But there was one thing she was forgetting. She had only stolen data. What would Anna's fate be?

Now _that_ was an unsettling image. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she accepted that at the very least, Anna needed to be protected. No matter what, Anna would always be more important than anything. Even her own life.

She'd never admit it, but she'd been having sacrifice fantasies for weeks now. Every possible permutation on the scenario played out. Jumping in the way of cars, taking bullets, rescuing from the clutches of villains; the list was unending. But in each one of them, she gave everything for her love.

Despite its ugly, intimidating appearance, the jagged ice now covering her room reminded Elsa that she was neither powerless nor devoid of agency. Staring at her hand, she whipped up a small flurry of ice shards.

_'I might not be a bio-mechanical superhuman, but I'm not weak.'_

But would it be enough? 

She pushed the question out of her mind, dismissing the ice in the room with a touch more flourish than ever before. Was she getting more graceful? Or was it just her imagination? It did feel good to flow as she moved.

Trying it on, she sauntered over to her desk, where she slid into her seat. Nice, comfy. She reached down and pulled open the desk drawer.

Back when Kristoff had escorted her home from the skatepark, Elsa had stopped at Anna's house. The contents of the drawer were what she had actually gone back for – full diagnostics and technical documentation on all of Anna's systems. If Elsa was to ensure her lover's survival, she had to be able to repair her.

Elsa swore once all of the information was transferred to her computer and rendered onscreen. The outline alone was 300 pages long. The complete data was no doubt so voluminous one might actually need augmented intelligence to understand it all.

In this case, however, defeat was not an option, neither was running. Instead, she hardened under the pressure.

“Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.”

Something occurred to her – she _did_ have an augmented intelligence, just not implanted. With a tap and a swipe, she set her computer to voice mode.

“Computer, Activate Snow-G.”

A long time ago, when she was in the tiny, cramped exercise room aboard the station watching the stars crawl by, Elsa had realized that her fear of biotech wouldn't save her from it. She spent years contemplating this, drafting several solutions that never solidified into anything promising. Until one day, she had had an awful illness and was in sick bay awaiting treatment. Doctor Zimmer had an extremely difficult time with the diagnosis, and had conferred with the station's onboard AI.

Several years later, she had finally finished Snow-G. It was the most sophisticated AI she could manage, and its primary goal was compressing impossibly complex systems into human-understandable terms, providing additional context and explanation as needed.

“Snow-G, there's biomedical, mechanical and electronic data on a cybernetic organism in the current directory. Please process it.”

“Yes ma’am.”

* * *

Dashing through the streets, jumping and flipping over street furniture, Anna flew through south Boston. Kinesthetic bliss flowed through her, amplifying the musical pulse of her heartbeat in her ears. Kristoff had set up a meeting and she was sure as sunrise going to get there in the most flamboyant, fun way possible. 

‘ _Nearly there_ _.’_ A single side-street remained between her and her destination. Bolting around the corner, she leapt into the air and into a steep wallrun. Bricks and windows flew by in a blur as she traversed the building at top speed, getting as far as she could before the inevitable fall.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a strong wind and a minor tremor pulled Kristoff out of his conversation. He whipped his head around to find the source of the disturbance, only to be met by cheeky, cheerful Anna.

“Hi Kristoff! And friend!” she said.

 _'Hope this goes well_ _,_ _'_ Kristoff thought.

“Anna, this is Christine. She's new to the city and currently works at a library.”

Clarice offered a hand. Anna plowed straight past it and enveloped her in a huge, heartfelt hug.

Curiously enough the hug was reciprocated, with a hefty pat on the back...

Nightfall was once again imminent, and Elsa had once again finished a day of toil. The new restrictions that had been imposed upon her weren't unbearable, but it was still unsettling to be looked at with skepticism and fear amongst her own kind. She got enough of that outside of LightComm, she didn't need it here.

“Good going Sanders, you're gonna get us all killed,” said a passer-by.

“What did you even do anyways? Security won't say anything,” said another.

Their words stung more harshly than any chemical burn. This _was_ her fault. In her efforts to help her beloved, she had bitten the hand that fed her. Her heart still bore the painful scars of the damage she had wrought, but there was no turning back time.

“I- I don't want to say anything. Please leave me be,” she meekly replied, doubling her pace and trotting down the hall.

Thankfully, the requisition loss didn't apply to food. Her lone companion in these trying times, the vending machine by her door, was as tempting as ever. She rushed to it, fumbling with the controls. Once she had a chocolate bar in hand, she rounded the corner to her room and swiftly closed the door behind her.

The glorious sight of her computer’s screen meant only one thing: past Elsa had given current Elsa a present that only she could provide, crafted of persistence and love. Despite good shoes and a carpet floor, she nearly slid out upon arriving at her desk.

She was grinning like an intoxicated fool. All day, she had had the expectation that something would at least need tweaking, or that the processing would still be underway. To her pleasant surprise, all was working as it should have been, and Snow-G had finished its compilation with remarkable speed.

“Snow-G, retrieve information on life-support systems,” Elsa said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

_'_ _Well_ _,_ _that_ _will_ _make_ _my_ _life_ _easier_ _.'_

At that, the information popped up onscreen, and Elsa set to work. Anna's onboard computer possessed a robust fail-safe, a direct wiring to her heart and autonomic systems. Should any of them fail, it would continually apply reboot procedures until either they fixed themselves or help arrived. In the case of infectious or corrosive agents, those same systems could be decoupled from the rest of the body.

Elsa straightened in her chair, her attention aroused by the most useful discovery yet. Anna's medullary implant had a diagnostic port, accessible by any medical tricorder with the right encryption key. If anything went wrong, Elsa could keep Anna alive long enough to fix things.

Of course, it couldn't be that easy. It never was. Shivers danced down her spine and looming dread filled the air. Technology wasn't the limiting factor - no, technology was Elsa's world, her comfort zone. It coddled her like an ever-loving guardian. The demon was far deeper, primal, even. If Anna were to be disabled or damaged, fear itself threatened to undermine her.

For years, sneaking, ruinous fear had stalked her. Ruthlessly, it strangled her growth, chaining her to the mercy of the world around her. It was not a battle without headway, for Anna had been her guiding light and with that light had come less and less icy misfiring. But if that light's very survival relied on her... If only one misstep, one blunder meant she lost that light forever... The fear might win.

Violently, Elsa shook her head, trying to clear it. The pressure in her chest faded as her pulse slowed down to a reasonable level as she reminded herself of her goal. _'_ _You_ _still_ _need_ _to_ _figure_ _out_ _how_ _to_ _repair_ _her_ _.'_

“Snow-G, retrieve information on the subject's appendicular system,” she said.

As the full text of the subject came up, Snow-G piped up to offer a reading of the abstract.

“The subject's appendicular system consists of two highly customized Evotech FP Arms, as well as two Evotech Titan compressible legs. Like all Evotech limbs, they have a titanium-alloy frame, memory-wire muscle fiber packs, are innervated with CyberDynamics nerve clusters, and have Keratose synthetic skin. Replacement part codes are included in the data.”

‘ _Goodness_ _..._ _’_ Elsa thought, marveling at the design. Anna was built like a tank. A cuddly, kissable, unfathomably loyal tank. Trying to measure exactly how much of her was bionic and how much was “natural” was a pointless task. Even though her limbs were clearly mechanical with a synthetic skin surface, her remaining biological systems were infused with advanced materials that seriously blurred the line between biology and technology.

The work was getting easier, thanks to AI assistance, but yet another obstacle was rearing its ugly head.

No requisition access meant none of these supplies could be obtained, rendering her knowledge useless.

Fighting rebellious nerves, she retrieved a remote earpiece from her desk, connected it to her computer and called the one person she knew might be able to help.

“Who is this? How did you get this address? I don't recognize your public key.”

_'_ _Wow_ _,_ _talk_ _about_ _paranoid_ _._ _Justified_ _,_ _though_ _.'_

Elsa summoned her most professional voice before answering. “Doctor Lancaster? Sorry to disturb you, I'm Elsa.”

Ashley's tonal shift wasn't as much as she'd hoped for, but it was comforting nonetheless.

“Ah, I remember you now. One second, I can tell you're connecting from an external device. I'm going to scan it for vulnerabilities. Can't be too careful.”

“I'm up to date on all my security measures... I learned _that_ lesson the hard way.” Ashley couldn’t see her, but Elsa's gaze dropped to the ground in shame regardless.

“Everything checks out. What do you need, Elsa?”

“You probably know that Anna's in over her head. Powerful agents are going to be after her before long. I... I need supplies, if it isn't too much of an imposition.”

Extended silence on the other end of the line did nothing for her confidence.

“Is Anna coming around to my request? She's a sweet girl, but we're spread pretty thin at the moment. Convincing people that there's even anything wrong is hard enough. I can't spare much if she isn't going to be helping out. I'm not a god.” A pause, then a sarcastic chuckle. “Yet.”

It was irrational, Elsa knew, to expect help for free. That did nothing to clear the flash of anger at being asked for something in return. Elsa was no stranger to hopelessness, but such was her fate when cast into a world that had left her kind in the dust long ago. She uncurled her fists and relaxed in her seat, trying to keep the anger from lingering. Surely there was something she could give Ashley in exchange for help.

A flicker of an idea sparked into existence in the depths of Elsa's mind. Ashley was just as threatened by Evotech as she was.

“I'm not sure about Anna.” Elsa started, “I haven't spoken to her in a few days now. On the other hand, I do think I can make it worth your while.”

“Oh? What have you got?”

Elsa smiled as the devilish scheme solidified into something concrete. _'_ _Oooh_ _,_ _that_ _'_ _s_ _good_ _'._ She straightened in her chair, tall with confidence. With a touch of luck, she'd be able to turn a catastrophic blunder into something good.

“I know what caused the attack on LightComm. It wasn't a normal terrorist attack. Hans was retaliating against me for breaking into his personal affairs. I can show you how to get into his network.”

That got nir attention. Across the line, the doctor could be heard shuffling and arranging something. There was a subtle shift in tone and while Elsa couldn't tell if Ashley was getting down to business or just feeling better, there was definitely a more positive note.

“What do you need, Elsa?”

“I need a medical tricorder, diagnostic software, an interface cable, and access to a genetic database.”

“...why the genetic database?”

“I'm trying to solve a mystery.” This was going to be tough; Elsa hadn't told anyone other than Anna and Kristoff about her predicament. Ashley was trustworthy but the feeling of wariness was difficult to shake. Trying to calm her nerves, Elsa reminded herself that this was for the best. “I'm an orphan and I want to find my parents.”

The line went silent. 

After a few tense moments, Ashley spoke again. “Alright Elsa, I've set up a VPN. You should be able to get anything in either the CyberDynamics or New England genetic database. Just try not to get my access revoked, okay? And for the love of all that is natural, get Anna on board with our operation.”

“Absolutely. Thank you so much, Doctor Lancaster.”

“No sweat,” Ashley said. “I hope.”

The line went silent, and the connection closed.

The sun was lower in the sky now, and things were starting to look better. Sweet, calming symphonies with just a touch of electronic instrumentation flowed freely from nearby speakers, coaxing Elsa into a more relaxed, yet still studious state. Going through Anna's diagnostic systems had been refreshingly easy, far more intuitive than anything she'd seen or built on the station.

 _'_ _I_ _could_ _get_ _used_ _to_ _these_ _new_ _UIs_ _._ _'_ The thought was fleeting though, swept aside by warm coffee, if only for a moment. Many months ago, she'd hit a wall trying to get at her genetic information; ice formed on any samples, preventing any derivation of a sequence. Everythinghad changed when she met Anna. There was something healing and empowering about Anna's presence, like basking in the aura of an angel. It had done wonders for Elsa's control, bringing a peace she hadn't felt in a long time. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to command her cryokinesis to stay calm long enough to get a sample performed.

When the caffeinated bliss faded, Elsa turned her attention back to the screen. The newly acquired genetic database stood before her. Her sequence was already entered, all that was left was to start the search for related matches.

_'_ _This_ _is_ _it_ _.'_

Her finger was inches from the screen when an alarm from her tablet went off.

The realization of what exactly the alarm was for sucked her out of the zone, replacing focus with giddiness. “Oh my gosh, it's 19:00! Time to go see Anna!”

With great fluidity and not a single pause, she started the database search, polished off her coffee, and tied up the back of her wild mane. After making a quick pit stop, she grabbed her essentials and ran out the door.

_Search_ _1%_ _complete_ _._

_5.85_ _billion_ _possible_ _matches_ _._

* * *

Anna had been unhinged all night, fidgeting and darting with anticipation. Her sweet, adorable Elsa would be arriving soon. Her imagination ran wild; she could see it already. Elsa would arrive in her poised, elegant manner with undertones of cuteness and it would send Anna's brain into overload. The whole situation was borderline madness. Her head swiftly peeked up over a windowsill, disappeared, then reappeared in another window a bit later.

Earlier, she'd spent untold hours patiently searching for the perfect gift. Even though most people were using implanted technology for its speed and security, wearable tech was still popular for modularity and versatility. Anna had found one of the fastest, most useful personal computers on the market and bought it without a second thought. She wouldn’t even have to go through painstaking effort of fitting. During their adventures the week before, Anna had taken a 3D scan of Elsa's arm. It would be perfect!

Elsa clutched the straps of her handbag and a slight sloshing sound came from within, accompanied by the gentle clink of glass. Before her incident with requisitions, Elsa had ordered twin beverages, one of traditional wine and a sister bottle of GABAhol with the same flavor and from the same manufacturer. All starry-eyed at the prospect of a romantic meal, her first instinct had been to go for classic, almost cliché territory: a box of chocolates. Heaven knows she could devour chocolate until her stomach objected, but instead a last minute decision was made to get a dinner of burritos instead. More nutritious but just as delicious, she reasoned.

 _'_ _I_ _love_ _these_ _taxis_ _,_ _'_ Elsa mused, as she laid back in comfort, listening to the soft, serenading classical music as it set the tone for a calm journey. The sun was only visible by tiny, muted gradients in the sky, and the blue glow of the LED strips was the preeminent source of light in the car. The effect meshed well with the design of the vehicle, mostly gunmetal and black colors, with long striking lines and smooth corners. Soaking in the ambiance, Elsa closed her eyes and tried to imagine her own personalized take on the aesthetic.

Gradually, the lights in the car intensified. A nondescript yet calming voice tugged Elsa from her internal mindscape.

“You have arrived at your destination. Please remove any belongings before discharging the vehicle.”

Each time she had walked up to this door, _something_ about the experience changed, however subtle. Sure, it was the same configuration, built from the same materials, following the same proportions. But the feeling changed. The first time it felt frightening, like an unexplored frontier. The second time it was easier, more familiar but still not exactly welcoming. This time, however, the house practically welcomed her. Lights along the walkway responded to her presence, illuminating her path. The porch lighting shifted colors from cold to warm, and the door unlocked just as she reached it.

Apparently, the house wasn't alone in expecting her. While she stood there in the doorway, Elsa put her hands on her hips.

“How long have you been sitting here like this, Anna?” Elsa asked.

Anna's eyes lit up in a vibrant blue glow. It wasn't even remotely subtle, and it spoke volumes without a single word.

“It's been hours, hasn't it?”

“N-No. Of course not!” Anna said, conspicuously looking aside. “Elsa, I have something I want to show you!” Anna offered her hand, and the two of them dashed down the hall, around the obsidian spiral terminus of the handrail, and down the stairs.

The lower floor had a much more sparse, clean aesthetic than the rest of the house. It was virginal, bordering on sterile, but not so pure as to be otherworldly. Everything was matte, with no specularity to be seen. Supporting pillars curved where the floors and ceiling met. The edges of the panels had nicely rounded corners, parted at thin seams like opposing fields. The entirety of the narrow, long room was filled with the bright off-blue glow of the fluorescent lights running across the upper moulding on the walls.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa noticed a small box on a stand near the door that Anna was leading her towards. Their clattering footsteps slowed to a more subdued pace, and soon, Anna came to a stop by the box.

“Close your eyes, Elsa,” Anna said.

Gleefully, Elsa closed her eyes and waited for her surprise. A soft band of fabric, accompanied by a light, thin, rectangular box, slid up her arm. It felt sublime, the material giving where her body was stiffer, and stiffer where her body was compliant. It came to a stop over her bicep, and nearly instantly, the sensation disappeared, as though she was wearing nothing at all. She wondered if it was time to open her eyes.

Somehow, Anna picked up on this. “Not done yet, keep 'em closed!”

Elsa was loving it. “Okay, whatever you say, sweetheart.”

Soft points of pressure expanded into thin lines on her arm. The sensation of Anna's fingers sliding up her arm was soothing, practically sedating her. Keeping her eyes closed wouldn't be an issue at this rate. 

It was a fleeting moment, unfortunately. Anna's hand retreated, having placed a band upon her wrist.

“One last thing!”

 _'_ _What_ _else_ _could_ _sh_ _-'_ Dainty kisses upon her nose took her by surprise.

“Mwah! Gotcha!”

“Hey! No fair!” Next thing she knew, her eyes were open. Whatever the device strapped to her arm was, it was... What was it? It was muted and nondescript. She couldn't place it. The bracelet was thin and black with a glowing blue line on the smallest sides.

“What's this?”

There it was, that magnificent, radiant smile. Anna’s toes were pointed inwards and her hands were behind her back. She swayed side to side as she began her explanation. “It's like that tablet that you carry around. But it's small, way faster, goes on your arm, and you can project the display anywhere.”

 _'_ _On_ _my_ _arm_ _..._ _Oh_ _yeah_ _!'_ She’d already forgotten she was wearing it. How on earth did they make the fabric so comfortable?

“It's perfect! If only my clothes fit this well.”

Anna leaned over and tapped a spot on the arm-facing side of the case. The bracelet sparked to life, projecting a holographic display onto Elsa's arm.

“It works just like the touchscreen you're used to, watch.”

Playfully, she locked eyes with Elsa and drew circles on Elsa’s arm. Sure enough, the 'screen' responded.

“Isn't that awesome?”

Utterly unbelievable. All her life, she'd just been an aimless, useless tech junkie, unworthy of such generosity. Or so she thought. Overcome with a fit of joy, she grabbed Anna by the shoulders, gently stroking them. On the verge of tears, she looked Anna deeply in the eyes, watching them dart in attentiveness.

“Anna... I'm speechless. You're too kind.”

“Psh, that's nothing. Wanna see what it can do?”

Enthralled, Elsa nodded with glee, too excited to form sentences. Frozen in place, she could do nothing but stare. Anna skipped over to the vertical doors on the nearest wall, her steps carefree. Upon her arrival, the hulking doors came to life. Inch by inch, they slid open. The lingering doors came to a halt and locked loudly into place, only to reveal a mysterious room whose interior appeared entirely black.

Inside, all that could be made out was a tread-like texture on the floor. It was gray, with long, thin striations. Once her eyes had adjusted, Elsa's curiosity won out and she immediately started looking around, taking in everything she could. The walls had thin metal beams in a grid pattern suspended over them. Many nodes in the grid had some kind of protrusion, tapered cylinders with open ends.

“Anna, what is this pl-”

She was interrupted by a bright flash and the humming of intermured machinery. When the dazzling display had subsided, their surroundings had been replaced by a new scene. The floor had assumed the appearance of a checkerboard that stretched into infinity with alternating gray and white squares. Above, the upper walls and ceiling now appeared to be a vast blue sky that faded white near the horizon.

“It's a virtual reality room!” Anna said.

Elsa had an endless list of questions to ask. How did it work? Holographic projectors, clearly, but how did it handle perspective differences? Solidity of objects? Oh, there were just so many questions to ask! “It's amazing! But what does this have to do with my computer?”

Anna smiled at her, a blend of wicked mischievousness and levity on her face. Gracefully, she stepped within Elsa’s reach, guiding the display-bearing wrist to where they could both see it. “You can use it to build the world!” She started tapping away on Elsa's forearm. “Check this out!”

A couple of meters away, a solid cube with beveled edges and glowing lines faded into existence. At the sight of it, Elsa's imagination ran wild, visualizing sprawling metropolises, titanic acropolises, gladiatorial arenas, and just about every other possible majestic world.

Anna elaborated: “We can even build them together! That is kind of a pain in the butt though.”

The prospect of collaborating with her dearest was tantalizing to be sure, but Elsa had something more nostalgic in mind. Struck by a bolt of inspiration, she asked Anna to hold her handbag.

“Sure! What's in the bag?” Anna asked, accepting it. Elsa didn’t notice her spawn a bench into existence and sit upon it.

Elsa, now distracted by her own ability to worldcraft, simply replied, “Dinner.”

“Oooh,” Anna cooed in excitement. Her organic systems did, in fact, need nourishment. “... eating in the VR room, eh? My parents would throw a fit. Let's do it!”

This time by Elsa’s doing, the world around them morphed in a dizzying display of light. When the fluctuations finally settled and the environment solidified, a world entirely unknown to Anna appeared.

To Elsa, of course, cramped hallways and metal paneling were home. Being surrounded by her former home seized her with such an intense, compelling sense of presence that for just a brief moment...

Anna cried out in astonishment, bouncing in place. “Oh my gosh, Elsa look!” By the window, she placed her hands on the outcropping, leaning forwards until the reflection of her face appeared in the glass.

“It's... Earth.”

Now by her partner's side, Elsa pulled her bottle of wine out of the handbag slung across augmented shoulders. She took a swig. It was sweet, bordering on the saccharine. How much of the sweetness was from the drink and how much was the result of present company was difficult to tell, but Elsa reveled in it regardless. Elsa reflected in multiple senses, both in the window and upon herself. She softly slid her hand across her partner's back, resting it at last upon Anna's shoulder, letting her fingertips fall in between the ridges of artificial muscle, massaging them gently.

Elsa spoke, “I've stared out this window for longer than I can remember. My entire life, this has been where I've come to dream and wonder.”

Anna turned to her left ever so slightly, not wanting to take her eyes off either Elsa's face or the planet. Gently wrapping her left arm around Elsa's waist, she slid her hand down a curvaceous hip. Anna pulled her own bottle out of the bag and took a small sip.

The two shared their comfortable silence for nearly half an hour, watching the swirling, mesmerizing weather patterns below. The white clouds contrasted sharply with the deep blue of the oceans. They didn't drink much, as they were already intoxicated with the beauty of the view and each other. Just as her consciousness began to slip past the bounds of sobriety, Anna broke the silence.

“What did you dream about?”

Another lengthy, thoughtful pause. As it continued, Anna's curiosity grew.

“All sorts of things. About wide open plains, vast skies overhead. Plentiful resources, endless freedom...” Elsa trailed off. Anna suspected there was more, but as it was not forthcoming, she offered her own dreams.

“I know the feeling. I used to do the same all the way down there. Gosh, I have no idea how many times I've just stared up and wondered what the heck is going on in all that space!”

As though fighting against a great weight, Elsa took her eyes off the simulated planet, sluggishly turning towards her right. Just when her periphery clashed with Anna’s, she ran headlong into a barrier within her own mind, and she struggled to cross it. Oh how Elsa so desperately wanted to smash it, to pummel it to pieces and stare headlong into her lover's eyes. But despite her titanic struggle and fierce exertion, the incredible tension remained.

Finally, she blinked, and in that instant, the barrier was crossed.

It was no small irony that Elsa was now frozen in place, captivated not by ice but by fire. The space between the two souls was potently charged, intensifying a force that had long ago began thawing Elsa's icy heart. Against every fiber of her character devoted to logic and reason, something deep within her soul kept insisting that she shared a transcendent, possibly even fateful connection with the radiant woman before her. Why else would they have fallen for each other so quickly? Whatever this deeper connection was, whatever their relation, she couldn't decipher. And despite her disbelief in such things, it felt unrelentingly _real_.

Elsa explained further. “I also dreamed that I'd find my true love. What I found is far superior to any dream.”

The miniscule motions of Anna's irises spoke on a far deeper level than words ever could. The pull between them multiplied, and in acquiescence, Anna moved inwards until her forehead laid gently upon that of the most endearing woman she'd ever known.

Hopelessly lost in Anna’s presence, Elsa said: “I love your eyes, Anna. The way they catch the light is breathtaking. They shift from blue to purple and back in such wondrous iridescence. If I could paint, I would paint nothing else.”

Anna nearly swooned. “You know what my favorite part of them is?”

“What?”

“When you smile I can take a picture and keep it forever.”

That was all she needed to hear. Years of longing and desolation had fermented into a passionate brew that rendered her hopelessly smitten. Caressing Anna's luxurious cheek, Elsa poured that intoxicated bliss into a deep kiss.

Suddenly, Elsa realized she was lying face-up on a bed. Not just any bed, but h _er_ bed, the one most intimate to her, burned into her memory as a home and respite. Anxiety had cropped up with the unexplored territory of burning love, and the familiarity of home had taken just enough of the edge off to make it irresistible.

Anna's shirt hitting the floor, on the other hand, quickened Elsa's pulse intensely, to the point where her voracious desire for intimacy threatened to push her over the edge. Her brain nearly short-circuited when a bare-chested Anna climbed on top of her. Once again their faces were separated by the smallest of spaces, and Anna shamelessly took the opportunity to nuzzle their noses together.

Looking down at her lover, Anna took Elsa’s hand, placing it on her chest below her neck and daringly close to sensual territory. “Elsa, you _can_ touch me you know. I'm not exactly fragile.”

* * *

Each touch was light, cautious and exploratory. An entirely new world of communication, never before available, was now hers, free to explore. Gestures as simple as kisses encoded a message in sensation, placed on a cheek to convey a step forward. Ever so slowly, Elsa left a trail of intensifying kisses down Anna’s neck, losing herself in the euphoria.

Dying to reciprocate, Anna asked: “Elsa… can I turn my social augment back on? I promise you’ll love it!”

“Oh god, yes… I'm yours. Take me.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. For the rest of the blissful evening, the two lovers joined, not through wires or transmissions but through the eternally binding power of physical touch.


	10. Power of the Queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up everyone, the ride is about to begin.

_Author's Note: Buckle up everyone, the ride is about to begin._

* * *

**_Search 40% complete._ **

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Paranoia is a most ruthless stalker, for it damns its victims whether or not they are truly in peril. The vigilance it demands is unwavering, a burden that can't be shaken. Worse, the senses exacerbate it; imagined shadows and murmurs trick the mind, inciting more fear and causing a runaway terror.

In spite of purpose-built stealth joints and limbs and feet with the finest shock absorbers, Ashley couldn't shake the feeling of being heard. Each minute scrape and shuffle seemed thousands of times louder than reality, amplified by cavernous ceilings and metal walls.

_'Shit, focus.'_

An unfamiliar noise echoed through the room. Nir eyes darted up, desperately reaching for anything, silently praying that nothing would be found. In a flash, ne switched to the infrared spectrum, then to the x-ray spectrum to peer through walls. A sigh of relief came; the walls and air ducts were empty. For the moment, cargo containers and various steel beams were the only company to be had in this place.

Most of the stasis pods were safely tucked away inside the freighter. The few that were left were being loaded, one by one, into their respective slots for the trip. The  _Swift_  was a long, sleek autonomous transport vessel. Despite her autonomy, she came with crew amenities such as a food synthesizer, a bathroom and a small fusion reactor to keep the whole thing running. Missions such as these often necessitated a guard accompaniment, especially when carrying such valuable cargo. In the cockpit, everything was being double-checked. Previously, a system had been installed that scrambled and diffused life signs from prying eyes. With the flick of a switch, it hummed to life. Success. The minor victory helped Ashley's nerves calm down for a moment. The ease was short lived, however, as it was interrupted by an important call. Across the line a modulated voice asked with impatience: "Is everything ready to go? Our window is closing."

"Yes, yes, I just need to get ahold of my guards so that nobody boards us in transit."

"Keep me updated," the disembodied voice said.

_'So far, so good. Time to call Anna.'_

The line was initially silent, and when Anna did finally respond, it was just a series of incoherent mumbles.

"Anna... did you just get up?"

"No way, I've been up for hours!" she replied.

"Yeah, and I'm a well-adjusted member of society. Totally not a neurotic mess."

* * *

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* * *

Dreams faded, and Elsa rose through the layers of consciousness from the most contented slumber she'd ever known. Enveloped in the fuzzy, surreal infancy of wakefulness, she rolled over onto her side and grasped onto something. Whatever it was, it was supportive and pleasant.

Eventually, when the slough of sleep faded, she opened her eyes. Just another normal day on the station. One look out the window and her familiar companion, steadfast and blue, floated in the infinite void. Space was serene, taking the edge off the morning's rise.

She shot up in place, no alarm had woken her.  _'Oh gosh I'll be late!'_

When she went to look across the room at her clock, something caught her attention. Her bed was sagging to the right! Investigating, she pulled off the sheets and promptly felt like an idiot. Anna was next to her, and the sight of her beloved was a clear reminder that she was not, in fact, really in space. Memories from the blissful night from before came rushing back, warming her heart and another, more intimate place, giving her a morning buzz more potent than any coffee.

The trickery of the illusory world scarcely made an impact compared to the comfortable proximity to her love. Elsa plopped back down and pulled herself closer to Anna, softly kissing the back of her bare neck. She started playing with Anna's impenetrable forest of hair and wondered how she'd managed to sleep alone all these years.

Anna started shuffling, mussing up the bedsheets. Lazily, she rolled until her discombobulated, slack-jawed face could be seen. The slumbering cyborg began to mumble as something unseen began to disturb her. Distracted by infatuation, Elsa nearly jumped out of bed when Anna started talking.

"No way, I've been up for hours!"

Elsa gave her a curious look, cocked head and all. "What are you talking about Anna?"

Anna giggled before responding. "Hang on a sec," she said, raising her hand until her index and forefinger rested upon her temple. She turned to Elsa with wide, endearing eyes and said, "A call on my infolink, hold on sweetie."

Elsa, her thoughts racing, found herself guessing at the identity of the caller. If it was Kristoff, Anna would be much more excited, her tone would undoubtedly be more familiar, and the subject of his date would have already come up.

Anna inhaled sharply. "Really, all of them? Already? Wow, you're fast!" She nodded her head, looking off into the distance as she listened. "Can't you have a droid do it?" Ever so slightly, she frowned at the response, "Oh, I see. Dang. Well, I'm not sure. I've been thinking a lot about it but I... I have to ask Elsa. Call you back in a sec."

Anna took her bedmate by the hand, locking their fingers together. She gave Elsa a solemn look and let out a shallow sigh before starting. "That was Dr. Lancaster. All of the patients have been patched up, and they're in stasis waiting to be taken somewhere safer."

To Elsa, that was good news, for sure. But that didn't explain what required asking her for something. "That's great! What does it have to do with us?"

"We've been asked to escort them during the journey. I didn't want to accept without asking you for permission."

There it was, as strong as ever. The call to duty, to help others. It clashed against her inner fears, multiplied by the stakes. Going back to safer, mundane work would be impossible now that she'd been bound to Anna by love. She sure as hell wasn't going to let her go alone.

"Yes.. tell Ashley we're going, and that we have to make a stop first."

Anna nodded in agreement, her face taut and serious. She gave Elsa's soft cheeks one last gentle caress, then made the call.

Cool, wet droplets splashed down milky white skin, cleansing in a rejuvenating cascade as they flowed down Elsa's face. Before her in the mirror, a reflection of herself stared her down. During her staring, she noticed a subtle movement, and to her delight it was Anna.

The most intriguing thing struck Elsa as she continued to groom herself. With Anna alongside her, something previously obscure became clear – they both had almost identical facial structures! She kept scuttling her eyes away every time Anna shifted, putting on what little stealth she could. With every tiny window that opened, she gazed upon the face of her love.

_'Funny... I hate my face. But on her it looks so good. How the heck does she do that?'_

Upon deeper reflection, it made sense. During her studies she briefly touched upon one theory of sexual attraction, where people of similar phenotypes were drawn to each other. And drawn they were, there was no hiding that, not even miles of cover-up would hide her blush.

"Hey, see something you like?" Anna quipped.

Pulled out of her gawking, Elsa replied. "Eek! Sorry Anna, I just... you're so.. I mean..."

"Aww, I must be rubbing off on you." Anna said, lazily going for the mouthwash. Her hands were way-off target, and she tried to grab the bottle long after it had slipped away from her.

"Anna, are you ok?"

Vacantly, Anna slumped over. "Ugh, no I didn't regenerate last night because I didn't sleep in my own bed."

"I don't understand," Elsa said.

"Oh... my bed has an inductive regenerator. It uh... recharges me."

 _'Of course!'_  Elsa thought. Those limbs of hers weren't going to power themselves. "Is there anything we can do to jump-start you?"

"Yeah," Anna started, her lifeless arm flopping like a limp noodle, vaguely pointing to the exit. "In the kitchen there are some energy bars and emergency glucosal packets. Could you get them for me, please?"

"Sure... they'll get you to full power?" Elsa asked.

"Nah, but it should get me to the ship, which will have a regen unit."

Elsa took the limp bionic hand in her own and placed a tender kiss upon it. "No wonder it's drained, all that vibrating last night must have used a lot of power!" She gave Anna a steamy look, then promptly ran up the stairs, hopping with glee. When she came trotting back down the stairs several minutes later, something about Anna's voice wasn't quite right.

"Come on Kristoff,  _please_?"

The pain in Anna's voice hooked into Elsa's heart, pulling her down faster.

"I know, and I think she's fabulous Kris, I really do. But we could really, really use your help." Anna paced anxiously, twirling her hair with one hand. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled in a rather distressing manner. Ending the conversation, she turned to Elsa and said "I really hate Kristoff's new girlfriend."

"What makes you say that?" Elsa replied, handing over an energy bar.

"My gut tells me. That, and she's sexy. Too sexy. Like a succubus or something."

 _'Ignore that your girlfriend just called someone sexy.'_  The instinctual flare of jealousy, though potent, was short lived. After all, she wasn't exactly in danger of losing Anna to this mysterious stranger.

"I asked Kristoff to come with us, and she was being super possessive. I don't know what her deal is, but every time he came around, she'd drag him off the line.

"I don't know anything about relationships Anna, but it might be better to let them do their own thing."

Anna's puffy cheeks ballooned while she chewed enthusiastically on her energy bar. While she munched, she took the liquid energy packets and stowed them inside tiny storage slots in her legs. In between bites, she managed to spit out "Fine, but I don't have to like it."

"Come on, we need to get to my dorm room so I can pick up some things."

* * *

The stout metal door slammed into the frame a little harder than she had meant to. Security had run Anna through the wringer, going so far as to freeze her in place with a forcefield until nearly all of her augments were turned off. Each sense they took from her felt like a fresh pair of shackles, or a bag over her head. It was terrifying to be so blinded. If it weren't for Elsa's soothing intervention, she might have started a fight she couldn't finish. Angrily, she groaned. "Everyone here keeps looking at me like I'm a freak!"

"They're terrified Anna. They can't know you're any different than Hans."

"But I AM different!"

A twinge of sorrow bit at her. Being looked at like a freak? An outsider capable of anything? Where had she felt that before? "I know. They looked at me the same way all the time. Especially when I told them that we're a couple."

There it was. That look Anna had when she was of unmitigated conviction. That look that never failed to bolster everyone present. "We have to fix this," she commanded.

Elsa's icy cool stare met her partner's in turn. Behind it, undertones of unease just barely shone through, subdued but present. "We will. I just need to finish transferring these files from my tablet to my wearable, grab my armament, and we'll be off."

"Your armawhat?"

"Oh wait till you see this!"

A devilish grin came across thin lips. Elsa slunk down, dragging her hands across the metal cabinet and popping it open with an upbeat flick. From the soft, porous foam she extracted her ESD rifle. It gleamed with a shimmer in her hands, light flowing off the long, smooth barrel.

"Whoa... you have a... what is it?" Anna asked, eyes wide in excitement as she studied it.

"It's an ESD rifle. I wanted to name it 'Sparky', but I actually believe that's a better nickname for you."

Anna pulled her head up from looking at the rifle, beaming at her new moniker. "Aww, I like it. But not as much as I like you, Snowflake."

The pair headed out the door, and Elsa locked it behind her, though she had little to return for. As they jogged down the hall towards their destiny, the computer in the now empty room displayed the results of the almost complete genealogy scan.

_Search 99.99% complete._

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* * *

Passing through the threshold of a massive overhead door, Anna's heavy footfalls reverberated through the vast space before her.

"Whoa."

"Impressive," Elsa added.

The two nearly jumped out of their skins when the door came crashing down behind them. No sooner had the echoes faded, than they were accosted by their paranoid comrade.

"Were you followed? Goodness, Anna get some dampers installed in those giant clunkers of yours!"

"Hey! My feet aren't big... are they?" Anna asked.

"Your feet are fine, sweetie," Elsa reassured.

Ashley hurried them to the ship, eager to get underway. "This is the  _Swift_ , ladies. She'll take you out of New England, past the national border into Autoria, then finally into Heartland. After that it's just a hop and a skip to Titania Haven in Colorado."

Anna nodded in earnest, but Elsa was far less enthusiastic. "... How are we supposed to get past border crossings? Won't scans show that we're transporting people?"

"Come on inside," Ashley started. "I'll show you the ship and explain everything. Then you can get underway."

Elsa took stock of the vehicle, losing herself in the flowing aerodynamic curves and pitch black windshield. The interior was satisfying in a different way, neat and trim without being barren. In the cockpit, she teased herself by slowly sliding her hands barely above the controls. Just because it was an autonomous vessel didn't mean she wasn't going to salivate over plotting the course and monitoring the systems.

"Snap out of it snowflake," Anna said, stealing her attention. "We've gotta go over the systems."

"That's  _Captain_  snowflake to you, Miss."

Anna chortled. Ashley just stared with a none-too-pleased expression.

"Oh, maybe I'll just mutiny,  _Captain_." Anna retorted with a cheeky smile.

"You two can flirt later. Time is critical." Dr. Lancaster leaned over, activating the helm and related cockpit controls. "The 'cargo' is obfuscated by a series of rhythmic EM pulses making them look like power cells. The refugees are shielded by a thick layer of heavy metal, and they're all hooked straight into life-support systems. As long as you keep them powered, everyone will arrive in one piece."

Gesturing into the holographic display, ne pulled up a hidden sub-menu dedicated to stealth operations. "If you get boarded, which won't happen, hit this panic button. Make sure you're both in the cockpit first! It'll lock out the cockpit, fill the rest of the ship with anesthezine gas, turn on a cloaking device and boost you the hell out of Dodge."

The heaviness of Ashley's stare wore down on a concerned Elsa. "Don't use it unless you really, really mean it. I'm serious."

"Right," Elsa replied.

Back by the loading ramp, cutting through the dust in the air, Ashley stepped out of the ship and spun around to face the two entrusted guardians. "I won't be going with you. I have some business to take care of here. Oh and Anna?"

"Mhmm?"

"Be as diplomatic as you can. Heartland isn't a bad place, but it's less aug friendly than here in New England."

"Got it."

"Good luck, girls." Ashley said, walking off to send the ship on it's way using a control panel across the room.

Anna waved back, hungry for adventure. "No sweat, we'll take care of eve-"

A massive fireball of an explosion blew the hangar door clean off its hinges. The entire building shook from the force. Concrete chunks and rebar tore through the air as hot, blistering ballistics.

 _'Shit!'_  Elsa thought, reaching for her weapon. She fumbled with her hands by her side, cursing as the memory of the rifle sitting in the cockpit came back to her. Heavily armed, augmented soldiers poured into the hangar, hungry for a fight. The loading ramp closed at an excruciating pace, made only more agonizing by the realization that the soldier on point had their sights trained straight for her.

The rifle came up, a finger ever so gently easing into a primed trigger. Millimeter by millimeter, it squeezed inwards, pushing against the threshold that would unleash spurts of hot death.

Elsa felt herself being pushed out of harm's way by a powerful force. As she flew to her right, gravity pulled her on a downwards arc, and she slammed into the wall hard enough that consciousness briefly left her. The last thing to be seen as the door came to a close and the ship took off was Ashley ducking behind a crate, hopefully out of harm's way.

Eventually, the gunfire-induced ringing in Elsa's ears subsided. Slogging through the disorientation, she gritted her teeth, pulling herself onto her knees. Her heart stopped when she looked up to see the form of Anna, limp and lying on the ground near where Elsa had previously been standing. Upon her stomach, a single bloodied hand lie palm-down.

"ANNA!"

Furiously she dragged herself the meter or so across the floor of the now speeding freighter. Fleeting memories flashed before her eyes. Each tender caress, every kiss and cuddle, compressed into mere moments, an involuntary reaction to the realization that they may never come again.

Silence. Horrifying eons of torture.

The first indication was the gentle expanding and contracting of Anna's chest with her breath. Then, Anna's eyes locking with her own. Finally, a reassuring smile and a grasp on the hand.

"I'm fine, snowflake. Just a couple of bullets."

Anna flipped over the hand on her stomach to reveal 3 flattened bullets, accompanied by only a meager pooling of blood. "My dermal armor caught them just fine. The wounds are skin-deep."

The strength drained from her, and Elsa let herself fall, her head landing on Anna's chest. She choked on broken sobs, whimpering pathetically. Strong, supportive arms cradled her. Slowly but surely, Anna massaged her back to a coherent state.

Anna, still running her fingers through Elsa's hair said, "Ugh, I really gotta regenerate. I've had enough of today."

"You're telling me," Elsa replied, rising to her feet and offering Anna a hand. She took it happily, and Elsa pulled until her savior was on her feet. The journey was nowhere near stable at first, wobbling and off-balance. Before long though, she'd gotten Anna's arm over her shoulder and was guiding her to the regeneration chamber. Gingerly they hobbled along, sneaking enamored, furtive glances to each other the entire time. Anything to get a glimpse of that immaculate face.

Anna stepped into the chamber, and Elsa quickly followed up with a kiss on the forehead. "Thanks for saving me again. I swear I'll return the favor."

Anna gave a deeper, more forward kiss straight on the lips. "I know you will, snowflake. Are you sure you'll be okay alone for a few hours?"

"Yeah... I'll survive," Elsa started, her eyes darting up. "Definitely gonna keep my gun with me this time though."

"Good idea," Anna said, gently caressing Elsa's cheek in her hand. "I love you."

And with that, she laid back, closed her eyes and let her tech do the rest.

Back in the cockpit, Elsa finally got some alone time with the ship. The plush black leather seating sucked her into a trance, and she hummed to herself contentedly. Refreshing gusts of wind came out of the vents, keeping the summer heat from being oppressive. Curiously, she flipped through the ship's manuals, reading up on the food synthesizer options, adjusting the driving route, and half-heartedly skimming over the entertainment options. All systems were go until she noticed the upper deck's door open on the camera view.

 _'Please no stowaways...'_  she thought, reaching for her weapon. Holding the handle firmly, she tried to regulate her breathing with limited success. Just before she left the room, she stopped, turned back and set the lights to full intensity before leaving. Shaking, she tried to force herself to stand tall.

Frantically, she scanned the room taking in every detail, audio and visual alike. Just a hint of a footstep sounded off by the stairwell, and in an instant her rifle was armed and ready to fire. Before she could get her finger down on the trigger, a tiny flash of light popped into existence on the floor at the end of the hall, and like a scared animal engulfed in blinding light, she froze.

Millimeter by millimeter, the expanding wave of light cascaded upwards, revealing at first mechanical feet, followed by legs and by the time it had finished, a very familiar face had de-cloaked before her. A face that looked none too happy to be staring straight down Elsa's barrel.

"Elsa, it's me! Put that thing away!"

"I thought you weren't coming with us!" Elsa exclaimed.

"I wasn't, but the bullets started flying and it was the safest way out."

The awkward silence continued long after the two had settled into the cockpit, watching sleek, high-tech skylines fade to more subdued suburbia. Finally finding the strength to talk about the terror in the hangar, Elsa spoke up.

"I'm beyond lucky, Ashley."

"Oh?" came the response.

"To be alive. In the firefight, Anna saw one of them gunning for me before I did. S-she... took bullets for me."

"Wow," Ashley said, slamming back into the plush seating. Under hushed breaths, ne mumbled: "Maybe I was wrong..."

Elsa queried "Wrong about what?"

"I saw the way you looked at me when we first met. Must've confused the hell out of you, being new to Earth and all."

Elsa found herself unsure of how to respond appropriately, opting for silence and a shrug.

"Nah, it's fine. Thing is... I got burned. Bad. By love," Ne turned away, slinking down a bit in recollection. "When I was a man, I got shit for being aggressive, and insensitive. When I was a girl, fuck me, I hated the way everyone treated me as a pretty little thing to be doted over. Made dating a nightmare."

"and that made you..." Elsa trailed off.

"Completely, 100% androgynous. No recreational equipment whatsoever. Downstairs or upstairs."

Elsa cupped her hands over her mouth, sucking in air. "That's so drastic. I can't imagine being driven to do that."

A sigh, and more weariness. "Of course you wouldn't. You and little miss cyber-savior are head over heels for each other. But for some of us..."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so insensitive," Elsa replied, wringing her hands and staring at the floor.

"Nah, I'm not gonna rag on an alien for not reading me like a book. Besides. The two of you are pretty cute. Maybe I am just cynical."

* * *

Pain seeped outwards from the impact point, stinging heat burned all over. Blood flew outwards, launched away from where titanium knuckles had smashed into jawbone.

A commanding, feminine voice spoke with venom, "I won't ask you again. Where are they going?"

"What's the matter? Couldn't even triangulate a call?" the prisoner asked, turning his head and spitting blood onto the floor.

No response but a contemptuous snarl. From the shadows a tall, dangerously handsome figure emerged, placing a hand on the assailant's shoulders.

"Now now, haven't you tortured this poor kid enough?"

"Admit it, you enjoyed watching."

"Are you so weak that you only fight shackled opponents?" Kristoff interrupted, pulling against his restraints. Stress alarms blared in his ears, warning that his wrists were being overloaded, but he persisted regardless.

Hans wrapped his hands around Kristoff's chin, pulling the captive's face up.

"You don't understand what's coming, Mr. Bjorgman. Everything is going to change, and I'm going to be the key."

"You're full of yourself."

A sarcastic chuckle, not from Hans, but from Clarice, came forth. "Why do you think he's worth my time but you aren't shit?"

Kristoff tore his eyes off of Hans, staring daggers at the seductress who'd betrayed him. "Oh yeah? Let me out of these and we'll see if you can take it any better than you can deal it."

Hans shot Clarice a look that Kristoff couldn't quite place, and walked over to her. Intimately close, he whispered something in her ear, and upon hearing it she stepped back. Her eyes searched his for a response, and finally she nodded before turning for the door, her metal heels clacking all the way down the hall.

"Tell me Kristoff. Do you think animals know what's best for them?"

"I don't think it matters what I think."

"Surely you opine," Hans remarked, one hand in the crook of his elbow, the other held outwards, palm-up. He turned away, staring thoughtfully into the distance. "Look at all those 'naturals' out there. They use up more space than we do, burn far more energy. They demand the world on a silver platter, but refuse to change themselves to achieve it. Then they turn around and say we're the problem because we're 'unnatural', or 'unfairly privileged.'"

The sheer malicious, willful ignorance was staggering, and unlike his wounds, it nearly caused him to hurl. "They're practically an endangered species. We owe it to them to co-exist peacefully."

Kristoff saw a nervous tic on Hans' face, the tip of what could be a far larger emotive iceberg. He whipped around, mania consuming him so fervently that one might swear they could see it in his eyes.

"I'm going to cleanse this world. All will be perfect. Trim, efficient. You have a choice. You can join me, or be as obsolete as those scraps you call augments."

"Shut up and get on with it. I'll die before I betray Anna."

"Is that so?" Hans asked, spitting with contempt. "The future is not so easy to predict."

* * *

Under the vast, open Colorado skies, Elsa took a cautious step off of the loading ramp. Before her, flat wheat fields reached out to her natural vanishing point and beyond. Shivers danced down her spine and across her skin, leaving waves of goosebumps in their wake.

The sheer enormity of the space served as a harsh reminder of just how cosmically small she was. As though her mind had been read, imminent hyperventilation was interrupted by a reassuring hand on her shoulder, the faint sound of servos within a reminder that she was as loved as could be. Anna's little mechanical mannerisms were a powerful hypnotic sedative.

Boots clanged against steel plating, reverberating through the craft. The two lovebird smugglers turned around. Anna lit up immediately. "You're awake!" she cheered.

All of the freighter's 'cargo' stood before her. The man standing closest stretched in place, bowing his arms out and craning his head. "Yeah. Feels pretty good, aside from a crick in my neck."

Triumphant, Anna fought the urge to pump her fist into the air. Instead, she just cheerily offered: "Awesome, let's get you set up in your new home!"

Titania Haven was a massive underground complex, consisting of 45 meter tall concrete domes connected by tubular railways. In the 1950s, back when the United States was a unified nation and on top of the world, several missile silos were built with the purpose of housing and launching the most powerful ballistics available at the time. Then, like everything else, they became obsolete.

Later, during the late 2020's, the world was first wrestling with how to get augmented and natural people to live with each other. As the nation split, the heartland harbored the most traditionalist mindset, eager to accommodate people who didn't want to run headlong into the future. At least not as fast as the world around them.

The effort to drain the underground launch base of over seven decades worth of groundwater and rainfall was a truly monumental one, but it was only the harbinger of things to come. When the transformation was complete, it was a fully operational, self-sufficient city underground. Certain technologies were banned, particularly mechanical and nanotech augmentation, but it was far from luddite territory, and the new arrivals fit in perfectly.

* * *

The scorching heat of the day had finally died down, the radiant sun had begun its slow descent past the horizon, the lower edge nearly kissing the ground. The summer heat warped its image in fluctuating waves. Above, the edge of the starfield encroached further upon the dying daylight, and Anna studiously observed every constellation. Ever since their night on the river, she had downloaded every star-chart she could find, eager to discuss them in earnest with her love as equals, instead of just an excited dilettante. Sitting on the roof of Titania Haven's elevator entrance, she let her legs hang into the open air and mindlessly swung them back and forth.

Comfortably within earshot, Elsa perched high upon the  _Swift_ 's upper deck. Holding her arm out in front of her, a disappointing flurry melted just as fast as it had appeared. Adding extra flourish didn't help. Something deep within, a kind of heavy mental baggage was weighing on her spirits.

"What's the matter, snowflake?" Anna asked.

Elsa threw her head back, staring at the heavens above. Her voice cracked as she cried aloud. "I'm such a failure!"

"Oh absolutely not, miss!" Anna replied, jumping off the rooftop and landing on the  _Swift_. Looking down, she cringed a little at the two dents she left in the deck. Nevertheless, she stepped up to her distraught love, enveloping her in a tender hug from behind. "You're my perfect angel who fell from the heavens," She put her head on Elsa's shoulder, and whispered, "You're not a failure."

"But I just... I can't calm down. My ice just won't work!" She looked down at the ground, a pitiful frown upon her face. "I can't do anything right."

Right away Anna felt what was wrong. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"What if I ruin everything? One mis-fire and my curse goes haywire." Even as she spoke, her skin crawled with disobedient, erratic power.  _'What if I can't save you?'_

The sweet response flowed to her ears, like a river cleansing fears."I know what you need," Anna said.

"What's that?"

"To let it go."

Without another word, the cybernetic woman gave Elsa a mischievous look, barely dragging her lower lip across her upper teeth. Excitement finally overtaking the pull between them, Anna jumped off the ship, and skipped off into the building. As she rounded the corner, her fading voice could barely be heard exclaiming "Ashley, do we have a chem lab here?"

 _'A chem lab?'_  Elsa's stomach churned. She tried to shake the thought of Anna's good intentions creating the next scientific accident. Disappointed in herself, she took in the sight of her own hand, manipulating it so she could see it from all angles. ' _What am I doing wrong?'_  Trying again, she out a deep sigh, let her hand drop down to her side and started the process over, balling up energy in her solar plexus, feeling it grow and pulse. Soon she was channeling it through her, feeling it pool, ebb and flow.

By the time Anna came rushing back, Elsa had long since given up. Lying face-up on the ship's upper deck, she hoped to find inspiration in the cosmos above. The endless void was foreboding, threatening to consume all without purpose or remorse. It wasn't the image itself that unnerved her so, but rather her inner shadow self reflected back at her. Her own mortality, weak and frail. No amount of frosty neurological novelty would change that she was an electrical pattern trapped in a minuscule, fragile meatbag. A meatbag whose time was eternally ticking away into senescence, if someone didn't kill her first.

"... Elsa?"

Unfailingly, the voice pulled her out of her turmoil.  _'_ "Sparky!" Elsa cried, running over to the railing, She leaned over to see Anna beaming back at her.

"We cooked up a surprise for you. It should help you... find yourself. Jump on down! I'll catch you!"

She didn't need to be told twice. A short fall and a thud later, she was in her lover's arms. She batted her big blue eyes back up at Anna and quipped, "... a  _bridal_  carry, eh?"

Anna retorted with a sassy look. "Aaaaanyway, like I said we have a surprise for you."

Ashley interrupted, holding up a flashlight-sized metal cylinder with a flanged port on one end. "Well, since you can't use deep brain stimulation like we can, we had to get creative. This hypospray is loaded with a psychotropic drug of my own design. It's a tryptamine that will hit your 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B receptors, as well as a bunch of other targets."

Perplexed, Elsa asked, "What does that mean, exactly?"

Anna lit up, bubbly and excited. "Well, first it'll give you a rollercoaster ride of feels, then you'll slip into a trance where you can find yourself."

Neuroscience was an alien language to her and yet even she knew that tampering with the signal pattern in her brain was altering the very fiber of her being. What if she didn't make it out of the experience intact? Would she even recognize the woman who comes out the other side?

"How do I know this is safe?" she asked.

Ashley, eager to defend nir creation said, "It's got a fairly short half-life so if you freak out you can just wait and everything will go back to normal. Even so I've got a benzodiazepine in another hypospray if shit really goes south."

Ashley's colorful vocabulary notwithstanding, Elsa was sure her companions had her best interest in mind. Clearly they'd undergone a great deal of effort to make this, just for her. Still, she was reticent. Her experience with psychotropic drugs began and ended with caffeine and modest amounts of ethanol.

Sensing this, Anna put a hand on her shoulder, "I'll be right by your side."

Looking up to the sky, Elsa caught one last glimpse of the moon above.  _'Home,'_  she thought. The pale, luminous moon that was her bedrock - was always with her, even this far away. No matter what changed, she'd always have it to find strength from.

"Alright. I'll do it."

The cool jet of compressed air puncturing her skin didn't feel like much, she didn't even flinch. It was just a tiny pinprick of pressure.  _'No going back now,'_  she thought.

All seemed normal, at first. Anna had chased her around a bit, tickling her and playing hide-and-seek all around the lone building on the plains. Pinned to the brick wall, the slick paint wicking heat off of her fingers, she protested playfully as kisses descended upon her. Giddiness took over, an unsuppressable smile grew across her face. And then, while she was taking in Anna's immaculate face, she could have sworn that everything got just a little bit brighter.

"Whoa."

"Hmm? What is it Elsa?"

It was a question without a trivial answer. Try as she might to construct a response, there was nothing succinct enough to describe what she felt. Sure, there were some physical changes but how to describe them? Maybe just a twinge in the stomach, a flicker of nerves?

"Something just changed. I don't know what but..."

Anna saw that her girlfriend's pupils were as wide as dinner plates and nodded in understanding. "Want some space?"

The response from Elsa was anything but immediate. All around her, the world was showing hints of novelty, despite looking unchanged. An impulse was entertained, and when she leaned her head to the side, looking past Anna, yet another revelation came.

"Oh... sorry, I just noticed," she started, her words drawing out ever so slowly. "The stars aren't moving l-like they should." She clumsily swatted at the sky before her, nearly falling forwards. "The distant ones are moving just as fast as the… um close ones when I move my head."

Stepping backwards a pace or two, Anna gave her an endearing smile and said: "Sounds cool!"

Time was starting to play devious tricks on her. There was no telling when it happened, but she found herself sitting down, staring out at the horizon. Hints of chromatic aberration were showing in her view, her fingers held aloft split into red and blue channels ever so slightly at the edges. She waved them in front of her, watching the after-images trail by. In an instant, nothing mattered. Not the past, not the future, not even the present. How absurd everything was! Doubling over in fits of laughter, she giggled until she could scarcely breathe. Her lungs complained but the waves of euphoria cascading over her drowned out their protests.

Nearby, Anna watched the madness unfold, enjoying equal parts nostalgia and knowing bemusement. A wry smile came across her face as she watched Elsa double over, so consumed with laughter that tears streaked down her face.

Once again, the winds of volatile emotions shifted. Incessant fits of laughter gave way to a calm, serene peace unlike anything the novice psychonaut had ever known. Tranquility consuming her, she relaxed onto the ground beneath. Overhead the stars themselves bobbed upon a placid sea of infinity. Reality began to fade away, crumbling into oblivion. Soon there was nothing left but that beautiful electrical pattern that made up Elsa, surrounded by fantastic color-shifting rainbow fractals. The ego was in limbo now. A psychic hammer far, far above threatened to plummet and shatter it into as many fragments as there were stars in the sky.

How long she stayed like that was impossible to know. Hours, eons, millenia, possibly even seconds. There was no difference. Reality was nothing more than an infinite, fantastically surreal space of morphing patterns. Self-repeating, self-similar, and all-consuming.

_'What even is an 'Elsa'?'_

In the swirling theater of visual memory, a scene began to play out. Though reality was far from here, and all perceptions were warped, it was not mistakable for reality. It was far too vivid for that. A great schism formed, on one side terrifying mechanical undulations, swarms of mindless drones consuming without thought or care. On the other side, a paradise, neat and orderly yet free to explore where harmonious states were achieved despite radical differences.

What was the difference? The spiritual signal pattern swam through the vision, trying to decipher. The struggle was immense, but the fulcrum point of the two futures was found.

_'The difference... is me. My choice.'_

Everything went cold, as it was bound to from the moment this all began. A fragment of identity returned, the first piece of the shattered ego restored.

_'My ice!'_

Something utterly primal, seated deep within the soul flared to life. Amazingly, it was stable, not once threatening to spiral out of control. All across what felt like a body, chakras aligned, flowing with unbridled power.

She staggered to her feet, stumbling against a decimated equilibrium. Through great hardship, she finally managed to stand. The colorful psychedelia no longer consumed her vision, fading into background noise.

Her stomach tied in knots, flopping all over itself, and along with it her body shivered. Whether it was from the cool night breeze, her nervous system being swarmed by frost, or just the anxiety of hallucination she did not know. But her shattered ego was coming together nicely, a deep spiritual strength as strong as a rock was the foundation underlying it.

The visceral feeling that had flared up from before was now a rhythmic pulse, a connection to  _some_  part of this real universe from which her power flowed. She balled it up in her hands, and dutifully it swirled into frigid thermal voids.

One violent expulsion later, and jagged, spiny shards covered the ground before her. The flow-state promised by the psychedelic drug had finally arrived. The stars and energies aligned, and with one mighty push, a beveled, hexagonal platform hoisted itself out of the ground, propelling the icy queen several meters into the air. Every time she channeled her power into the world, a shiver-inducing wave of euphoria hit her, setting off goosebumps and erupting her vision into vibrant color around the edges.

Overwhelming, utterly unchained bursts of winter whipped across the open plains. Back in the sober world, Anna hugged herself. Even her bionic arms were feeling the chill. More than just the weather was affecting her. The love of her life was finally finding her stride, coming to fruition as a grown, focused adult. And that was even more beautiful than the immaculate ice sculptures that now adorned the empty landscape.

Even the jaded, pessimistic neurologist who thought ne'd seen everything was moved. No one was immune to the radiance of Elsa's fulfilled soul as it beamed out into the night.

Back within the slowly rebirthing mind, sobriety was beginning to peek over the horizon, along with the rising sun. She was beginning to tire, her powers had ravenously consumed her energy reserves. Caught in a hazy fog, and blinded by the light, something resembling an angel appeared, scooped her up in arms, and descended back to the solid earth below. Once there, it didn't take her long to realize that sleep wasn't going to happen - the tail of the trip would keep her awake for hours. Despite that, it would be a sedated, restful state; a waking dream.

No horror, no dystopian future could claim her now. Destiny had stared her in the face, and she had dared to fly higher than Icarus to grasp it. Tomorrow, she would return to the tumultuous northeast to do her duty and save her kind, but for now she collapsed into cradling arms and rested to the sound of mechanical heartbeats.


	11. Family Matters

The _Swift_  boosted eastwards down the highway, her thruster nozzles narrowing to constrict the scorching jets of hot gas. Elsa was lying down below deck, recovering from her ordeal. Ashley was at the helm intently watching news streams, hoping that New England hadn't exploded into chaos.

With the wind whipping through her hair and the warm rays of the sun hitting her face, Anna was feeling on top of the world. She'd been completely successful in her mission, and Titania Haven was now in a better state than she'd found it. She sunk into the handrailing, letting her hands slide outwards. Just when she thought it couldn't get any better, a sorely missed voice came across her infolink.

"Anna..."

_'Mama!'_ The sign she'd been waiting for all this time had finally come!

"... If you're hearing this... Your father and I have been killed..."

Time stopped. Anna's knees slammed into the deck, leaving tiny impact craters, and her inner thoughts broke down from coherence to pure rage until it cut her off from the sensory world. Her head felt like it might split in half, her fists felt like they were about to clench through themselves. Through the quivering mess, she finally realized that she was missing what her mother was saying, and forced herself to pay attention.

"... please be strong sweetie. Your father and I knew the risks when we started. There's an important message for you on the home computer. We'll always love you, and couldn't have asked for a better daughter. Goodbye Anna."

For just an instant, the joyous, beaming light of Anna's soul flickered.

Elsa opened her eyes, and looked around. Something was amiss, her intuition was screaming at her. Despite being weighed down by lethargy, instinct carried her up the stairs and onto the upper deck. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach at the sight of Anna helplessly sobbing on the ground. In an instant, she made her way to Anna's side, kneeled down, and scooped her distraught lover up in a comforting hug. Gently stroking her shoulder, she whispered "It's okay Sparky, I got you."

The look Anna gave her was almost too much to bear. Streams of pain flowed freely from her eyes and down her face. The words couldn't come at first. Every time she went to speak, she could do nothing but stare back, silently pleading for the impossible. Finally, through choking sobs, she managed to utter: "M-mom just s-sent me a post-mortem."

"What? No!"

Anna buried her face into Elsa's shoulder and wailed. Tears flowed, and soon Elsa was crying as well. They'd left their mark on the world, and since she'd felt that herself, they weren't just impersonal entities – she felt a connection to them. Her heart ached and mourned for the family she'd never get to meet. She'd never get to introduce herself, never get to thank them for the gift of Anna. They'd never have that trepidatious period all families go through when accepting a new member, nor the inevitable bonding afterwards. All that her soul yearned for was lost forever.

 

* * *

 

This house was once a home; rife with laughter and play. Now it was nothing more than a mausoleum of memories past. Shadows crawled across the walls; if the house was an orchestra it would be mourning through long, drawn out cries of the string sections.

_'This is a new feeling.'_  Anna thought, the door to her father's study staring her down. He had always taken time out of his packed schedule for her, even when she was entirely selfish and deadlines loomed. It was unprecedented for this place to be colored by such sorrow. Anna's heart was tugged out of the depths by a soft, protective squeeze on her hand. Thankful that she wouldn't have to face the ordeal alone, Anna looked at her with something almost resembling a smile.

Eventually, she pushed onwards.

The message from earlier had contained an encryption key for a holographic recording and while entering it, Anna steeled herself for the unknown. She silently prayed that the video contained some kind of miracle, anything to lift her spirits. Breaths and heartbeats came to a halt, all eyes in the room transfixed upon the ghostly hologram of the dearly departed.

Elsa stared in silence. Without fail, every time she'd seen Anna's parents it had calmed her. Something about them filled her with a sense of strength, yet she could never articulate it. It almost felt like a hint of familiarity, as if they reminded her of Gerda and Kai.

Anna felt it too. Her heart finally caught a break from despair and numbness as her father's confident air and mother's loving aura worked their magic.

Within the glowing holographic display, Anna's parents took each other by the hand. Her father spoke up first, in his ever smooth voice. "You must be feeling very lost right now. It isn't fair to you."

Mother spoke up next. "I know we've been distant lately, and I hope you can understand. We have to ask you to be brave again. It won't be easy but we believe in you."

There was no agreement from Anna, who stood nearby, lifelessly looking at the ground. "What if I'm not good enough?"

Nearby, Elsa was leaning towards Anna, her hand outstretched. Just as she went to respond, the hologram cut her off.

"Of course you are, you're incredible. Don't talk like that!"

She gasped at the unexpected response. "Wait it can talk back to you?"

The holographic characters went silent, pausing in unison as the program detected Anna turning away. "Yeah… it's a simple AI that can answer some questions and hopefully provide closure. I'm told they're very helpful."

Elsa's hand finally landed gently on Anna's shoulder and she added, "I'll be here for you too."

Without a word, understanding was painted within Anna's eyes, as clear as day. Elsa gently nodded, and Anna turned back to the holograms. "You had a message for me?" she asked.

The image of her father leaned forward a bit, looking up at her, "Are you sure you're ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be papa."

He turned and went back into his original place, nodding at the other hologram. "Everything is about to change. CyberDynamics has a project called the SWARM. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Anybody with a MedulNode can temporarily merge their minds to form a more powerful one."

"What's it like?" Anna asked.

"Crowds can move together in perfect unity. You can't surround them, you can't break through, they regroup instantly. They can move and think like one being, pooling their intelligence together to solve almost any problem."

Speechless, the two women looked at each other. Elsa quickly compared it against every piece of tech she could think of, as did Anna. Grim agreement was written on their faces in mutual understanding - If Hans assimilated enough drones, stopping him might be impossible.

"It isn't all bad though," Anna's mother said, nudging her husband with an elbow and smiling. "A hivemind of two is... perfect. Isn't it dear?"

Elsa read the innuendo instantly, blushing like a red giant. The prospect of literally sharing a mind with Anna was alluring, bordering on the irresistible. It was one thing to be lost in a world of supple skin and endless thighs, but another world entirely to actually _feel_  Anna's passion directly. She shuddered as she imagined it. Would it be worth putting technology into her body?

The look upon her father's face hardened. "Hans has been stockpiling slaves so he can use them as drones. Now you know why we've been trying to rescue as many as possible. He has to be stopped."

Both parents linked their hands once again, and pleaded Anna to continue their work. "We know it's too much to ask, but please finish this. We can't."

"I will." Anna said, her face hard and cold. A single tear fell to the ground.

Mother spoke up, "One last thing. Though we're gone, we have one last gift for you. There's a space station floating by luna. Call the station manager Kai, and ask him to speak with Elsa. She's your sister, and very... unique. Find her, and tell her we're sorry."

In an event unprecedented since the tragic loss, Anna finally broke a smile. The timing couldn't have been more fortuitous, just when the pain nearly torn her heart down the middle, there was the promise of new family bonds to keep her sane. And not just anyone either! Someone as perfect, smart, loving and gorgeous as Elsa!

But something wasn't right. Why was Elsa crying? That wasn't okay at all!

"Elsa, what's wrong?"

Confused, pleading eyes stared back at her, flooded with tears, mussing what little makeup Elsa had been wearing into a multicolored mess. Her voice cracked as she cried, "Anna... I... I mean we... the VR room!"

"We made love. So what? You think I'm going to stop loving you because you're my sister?"

"I just don't want to lose you. I... I couldn't," Sobs overtook her, and she felt Anna's powerful arms wrap around her. For several minutes, Elsa rocked back and forth in Anna's embrace, pleading the same phrase over and over again. "Please don't leave me."

Gingerly playing with platinum white hair, Anna held Elsa close and gently reassured her, "I'll be whatever you want me to be, as long as I'm allowed to love you."

They sat in silence, holding each other for the longest time. When it finally became obvious that Anna wasn't going anywhere, Elsa began to open up about her thoughts, little by little. "It's kind of funny actually. This explains a great deal."

Curiosity had been piqued, and Anna couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean, snowflake?"

All the introspection and contemplation over the strings of fate, and how they had fallen in love in record time came back to her. This time with an explanation. "From the moment I met you, I knew you were special. It didn't take me long to figure out that we were tied together somehow, I just didn't know it was this."

"Clearly it's fate," Anna said.

"I don't believe in fate, Anna," Elsa started, finally looking her in the eyes. "But I do believe in the theory of genetic attraction. That will have to be good enough for me."

An epiphany occurred to Elsa. While she had been distracted by worrying about losing the love of her life, a much older quest of hers had finally been laid to rest. She rose to her feet, and looked back down at her sister who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, gazing up at her with wide, loving eyes. "If you don't mind... I'd like to go through father's things. I have a family history to catch up on."

Afraid that Elsa might be conflicted about the nature of their relationship, Anna decided it was best to temper her affection, backing away as she stood. "I'll make you something to eat if you want. It'll give you some time in your own head."

Her sister sighed emphatically, and replied, "I don't know how much more soul-searching I can take, after that trip last night but... you're right. I've a lot to think about. Thank you."

Twirling around at the door, Anna tempered her adoration as much as possible, giving a solemn look. "Oh, and Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"We don't have to tell anyone, you know. About us being sisters. Besides, people already accuse me of bestiality because I'm with you. What's one more stone to throw?"

Elsa's vacant expression and continued silence weren't exactly encouraging.

An agonizing half-hour later, and Elsa had finally figured out how to use her wrist interface to connect to her father's computer. Once she'd gotten into it, the long, curved monitor that surrounded her flashed to life. The first place she thought to look was the contact list, and the sight of Kai's name as an 'important' contact flared up some old animosity. Briefly, she entertained calling and pretending to be Agdar, just to see his reaction. Eventually though, she thought better of it, and pressed on to find Dr. Lancaster and all of the associates involved in their underground railroad operation.

What really touched her heart were the journal entries. There was one from 2028, where he was forced to downsize employment at Daedalus Aerospace. Slowly, Elsa's pulse quickened and rage built as she read about her father's despair at being forced by management to trim the 'least-productive' employees, who all just happened to be naturals. There would be no social safety net to catch them, since the government was still in tatters from the recent split. The only joy to be found was in the last paragraph, where he talked about the arrival of baby Anna, who had been delivered without incident.

" _Finally I will have a daughter that I can laugh and play with, someone to keep by my side. She's already the light of my life. I know, from the bottom of my heart, that she will be a far better person than I."_

She nodded to herself as she read. Anna had already come so far, done so much. If asked, Elsa would say that Anna was without a doubt the better than she was.

" _Still... my joy is tainted. No matter how much I beg to see Elsa, Kai won't let me... just like I told him to. She deserves better than this. I can't believe I threw her away, locking her into a prison just because she's different. I hope she doesn't hate me."_

Elsa shook her head vehemently. She may have hated him, once. But looking behind the curtain, she saw her pain mirrored within him and any trace of anger was cast aside. With great sorrow she dropped her head and wondered if she'd ever be worthy of the sacrifices made for her.

Silence filled the room; a deathly stillness reminiscent of eternity became Elsa's only companion. She sat motionless, trying to integrate the pieces of her lost family life. She wondered what she might have done in their position. Would she have been that strong? Doubtful, her entire life she'd been an emotional trainwreck, except when she was working. Not just that, but how expensive it must have been to get her there. She couldn't even figure how big of a sacrifice it was, let alone if she was capable of it. An intrusive thought reminded that there was more to be found. She could think about this more later. Another journal entry awaited, this one marked September 2044.

" _I got a message from my contact K today. Another test on SWARM was completed. She said that the pieces are starting to come together. They've solved the desynchronization problem. She also mentioned that tempers among the team were getting heated, since their manager kept demanding the inclusion of something called a monarch node._

_It's the reason K got ahold of me in the first place. Idunn and I were able to convince her to steal a copy of the project's documentation, but by the time she'd gotten it all the stuff about the monarch node had been chopped up. Despite that, it's still a real eye-opener. I'm not sure what to do..."_

Her intuition, and a little help from Snow-G guided her towards the stolen documentation and it wasn't long at all until she had it. A glowing box appeared on the screen, replete with information. One look at how much was there and she grasped for a coffee that was nowhere to be found. _'I can't survive this without coffee!'_  she cursed to herself. It looked like she'd just have to do it the slow and painful way.

The documentation revealed the full name of the project: Synaptic Wireless Ad-hoc Remote-control Mechanism. It achieved the hivemind connections by taking senses and thoughts from augmented people, digitizing them, and sending them wirelessly to others. Telepathy and impulse sharing were achieved through sensory overrides in the person's medullary implant. Users connect by downloading software from a special device called a root node. The root node could also be used to shut down the entire hivemind, but further reading revealed that this was implemented as a failsafe, and could be removed in future generations if needed.

Hairs stood up on the back of Elsa's neck when she got to a particular engineer's notes. A rare few of the users suffered from bouts of psychosis, possibly caused by sensory overload. Instinctively, she checked the date. The stolen copy of the documents were just as old as the journal entry about them. She kneaded her fingers together on one hand and rubbed her scalp with the other. How long would such a thing take to fix? If they got lucky, Hans' plans might not get far. Then again, she reminded herself, he wasn't exactly a paragon of empathy.

Her nervous tics intensified as she got to the meatier part of the subject. Unfortunately, the section about decision making and control delegation was slathered in redactions, shadowy spots in the field of knowledge that was so desperately needed. There were bits and pieces... something about an alternate mode, references to the monarch mentioned in the journal. The fragments swam around in her mind like a charged storm, theories flashing out in bolts. Ashley and the rest of the underground railroad definitely needed to know about this.

Elsa spoke up as soon as the call went through "Ashley, are you available?"

"Hey! I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon. You did a great job in Colorado, by the way. Is Anna handling everything well?"

"We're still a little shaken up about it... Anna won't admit it but the world feels... darker, somehow."

"It is... nobody is as reassuring as Idunn was," Ashley said, inflection dropping to the subdued.

No time like the present, Elsa figured. "Have you gotten access to that classified project?"

Hurried shuffling and huffing came across the line, accompanied by a hefty door slam. "Not quite... I keep bashing my head against the walls here but I can't get anything without tipping off security. Why do you ask?"

Shaking like one does when possessing forbidden knowledge, Elsa managed to spit out, "I've obtained everything. Construction schematics, API docs, user manual... Fa- erm, Agdar found everything. You have to see it."

The response was immediate, and Ashley's inflection turned imperative. "Send it to me over that VPN I hooked you up with, and use that e-mail I told you about before we left the _Swift_."

"Right away. Let me know when you've gone over it. I think we need to decide how to handle this together."

"Yeah, assuming they don't kill me next. Whatever this is, it's big."

"I concur. Please be careful," Elsa said before ending the call.

A knock at the door pulled her out of her daydream and back into the present, and she turned to see her... what was Anna now? Sister? Companion?

Lover?

Whatever she was, Anna stood in the doorway with both a steaming bowl, a mug, and a hopeful expression. Hearts fluttered in unison, and slowly, Anna strode across the room. The hot bowl slid onto the desk, and she leaned over to blow rippling waves into the soupy mixture.

"What is it?" Elsa asked.

"Clam chowder. One of my favorites."

_'… And coffee,'_  she thought, tears of gratitude welling up.

For just a second she was consumed by the impulse, no the need, to kiss Anna. She desired nothing more than to send a heartfelt thanks straight through their connected lips, but just a shadow of doubt about kissing her sister held her back. The desire came forth mangled and tempered, manifesting simply as a caring "Thank you Anna." Before the words had died in the air, conflict gnawed at her.

"So," Anna started, nervously swaying. "What do you think of them? Mama and papa, I mean."

"My whole life I've wondered that." There was a long, silent pause as she pondered. "Mother reminds me the most of myself. The way she holds herself, the way she moves. I do the same thing. Father seems like a good leader, and he clearly puts the needs of others above his own. I really wish I had his strength."

In the glassy reflection of the monitor, Elsa saw Anna with one arm outstretched, reaching just close enough to touch, but pulling back at the last moment. How desperately she wanted to close that gap, and her subconscious whispered venom at her for being too cowardly to reciprocate. With a pained expression, Anna managed to offer, "I think they would be proud of you." She folded her arms, looking away. "You got the best of both."

Once again headed for the door, Anna stopped and clenched her hands on her chest over her heart, closing her eyes. "You can use the guest bedroom down the hall if you want. The house computer can guide you there if you ask."

Speechless, Elsa reached out to empty space, staring at the luminous threshold where her sister had recently stood. _'Anna... I never asked for this.'_  How selfish she had been in her caution, she thought. Why had she been doubtful? She dug her fingers in forcefully, forming a rock-hard fist. The anger of imagining her lover hurting to spare her feelings exploded into a vicious punch, punishing the desk nearby. Splitting pain shot up her arm, but it barely registered. _'Just kiss her you idiot!'_

 

* * *

 

Powerful blasts of sonic goodness shot out of speakers, reverberating through the room. A fantastic world of light and steel projected out from Anna's massive wall-monitor, her in-game avatar weaving through the arena and wreaking chaos. Hot shots of righteous anger coursed through her, manifesting in twitchy reflexes. She'd replaced each of the enemies in the game with Hans' stupid face and was now exacting her revenge on the lot, yelling at each one as simulated gore showered the game world. Her fury was only amplified by the shreds of inadequacy that haunted her, fearful that she might have pushed Elsa away by being too insensitive to their new issue.

None of the distractions were enough to stop her from nearly having a heart attack when a knock on the open door came. Without even pausing her game, she turned her attention to her newly arrived companion. Elsa's hair was a mess, her makeup was nowhere to be seen, and her eyes almost as red as Anna's hair.

"I need cuddles."

The plush bed compressed under her hand as Anna patted it. "Come here sweetie, I've got all the cuddles."

The distance closed, and Elsa slipped snugly into the arms of her beloved.

"Tell me how you feel, snowflake."

She sniffled, her tears beginning to subside. "A tiny part of me says it's wrong to be in love with my sister. It feels... unnatural. But the more I think about it, the more I think that's just what the world tells me to believe." Elsa quite literally wore her emotions on her sleeve, wiping her eyes and nose with it. "If this is wrong... I don't want to be right."

"Snowflake," Anna started, ignoring the minefield of defining natural. "Do we really even count as sisters? Think about it. You're from the last generation to actually be born. Me? I was grown... in a lab. When I came out of the germination chamber they shot mama and papa up with drugs so that they'd feel the joy of childbirth."

Elsa gasped in fascination. "I had no idea!"

"And not just that... I mean look at how different we are," Anna continued.

Fingers dragged down cheeks, and Elsa briefly found herself disagreeing, reminded that they had much in common. But upon further study the differences became impossible to ignore. "You're right, we're quite dissimilar. And I don't even know what having a sister is supposed to be like."

Anna's voice strengthened, bolstered by conviction. "We can't have a typical relationship. Nothing about us is typical. Do you just pull parts off the shelf? I know you, you build things yourself. And that's what we're going to do. Build our own relationship, no matter what anyone tells us."

Without considering tone or implication, Elsa blurted out, "What would mother and father think?"

Anna gasped breathlessly, eyes wide in shock. She hadn't even considered it, and became rather withdrawn as she started exploring the question. The striking image of Idunn screaming outside a government building, holding up a sign demanding that violence against naturals be declared a hate crime was burned into her brain. The mood in the house when Agdar came home after a long battle with HR was just as poignant. Finally, Anna replied, "I think... they fought hard so that people could be free to live the lives they wanted."

"Even the lives we want?"

"Especially the lives we want."

Their faces were inches apart, repelled by only the faintest of tensions. Elsa gazed straight into her sister's soul, and all she could see was endless, undying love. Gently, she placed her trembling hand upon Anna's cheek. All that was her world was within arm's reach. She barely whispered "Anna... may I?"

"Always."

Their lips met; supportive, but not ravenous. Neither leaned into the other, the meeting of lips entirely mutual. From the sweet kiss, a feeling of complete comfort and acceptance spread throughout both lovers. Healed at last, they separated.

Mechanical eyes flitted in place, searching for a response. In turn, Elsa gently pressed her forehead against Anna's, and their noses just barely kissed.

Her eyes glimmering with a bead of teardrops, Elsa asked "Nothing will change between us?"

"Oh no, there will be change alright. Every day I'll love you more!"

"I don't deserve you Anna."

Anna chuckled, giving a beaming smile back to Elsa. "Well, one day the tech will get there and I'll be as good as you deserve."

_'You know that isn't what I meant!'_

Her mood was already beginning to lighten. How could anyone be this perfect? Elsa dared not actually question it, she just gave thanks that she was as fortunate as she was. Losing herself in Anna's good humor, she grabbed her bionic lover by the ribs and asked, "Tell me, is synthetic skin ticklish?"

"Hey wait no fair!" Anna exclaimed, writhing under Elsa's touch. She quickly found herself lost in laughter, and the two eventually fell off the bed, tangled in each other's embrace. "And speaking of no fair, I want a rematch for that race!"

Finding ever more enthusiasm for challenge in her newfound personality, Elsa put on a devilish grin, replying "Oh you're on!"

Barreling through the intricate neo-victorian home, the two sisters dashed and danced in an elaborate game. Anna dodged and dipped through the furnishings, letting Elsa gain a massive lead before closing the distance. The back doors flew open and the rambunctious cuties flew out, tearing into the night, the wind at their backs. Elsa's footfalls smashed down into the soft sand, kicking up splashes of lake water that shimmered against the sky like constellations.

For hours they played with each other, feeling out for any new boundaries or dynamics to their renewed relationship. They discovered little change and while Elsa laid her head down on Anna's lap, the two of them looking up at the heavens from the back porch, she decided that it was even better than before. Thoroughly beaten from their romp, they retreated to bed to recuperate. Anna promptly lost consciousness, the gift of instant sleep given to her by augments. Elsa was not so lucky. 24:00 came and went, and sleep was more elusive than it had ever been.

Despite being thankful that her new inner strength prevented the room from becoming a blizzard, Elsa still found herself perturbed. She tossed and turned. Loneliness was less her companion now than usual, her fractured soul beginning to heal but that was precisely what bothered her so. What if she lost this new strength? How was she going to make good on her promise to return Anna's constant heroics?

The underground railroad she'd encountered was comforting, for sure. Knowing that highly augmented people cared about the plight of those like her calmed her nerves a little, but it was impersonal at best. However, the remaining prejudice she had of augmented people had been decimated at the revelation that both of her parents were far from natural. It certainly gave her pause to think about what it meant to be human, about existence and the self, but that line of thinking lead to more questions than answers.

Thinking back to where she'd been a year ago, tucked away safely in the space station, no knowledge of the conflict on Earth, and deeply troubled about her future, the sleepless woman thought about how much she'd changed. There were times when she looked in the mirror and barely recognized herself. Without a doubt she did like the woman she'd grown to be, but the sheer speed at which she'd transformed was more than a little unnerving.

She knew that there was one sure-fire way to be strong enough to protect Anna. And it was starting to look more tempting than ever. But transitioning to something more than human might be too much change. Too quickly. The prospect gave her crawling goosebumps, an instinctual reaction. She really might lose herself, should she walk down that irreversible path.

Exhausted, she looked over to the nightstand, and nearly burst into happy tears. The family portrait she'd noticed in the living room the first night she'd been in the house stood upon it. In one of the most beautiful photo manipulations she'd ever seen, Anna had inserted Elsa into the image, smiling like she'd never smiled before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I know some might not be happy about this story not being tagged as incest romance. Elsa's family was a mystery to be solved, tagging would have spoiled it. Remember it's just fiction!


	12. Out of the Shadows

Bullets whizzed passed Anna's twin braids, nearly giving her a haircut. She ducked behind a pillar, and concrete flecks popped off into the air. In her vision, a timer ticked away. _'Come on Elsa, get these doors open!'_

The hail of gunfire intensified, the horrible beat in the song of death. Despite the combat fear in the background, Anna was brimming with excitement, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She had to remind herself that just because she felt like she could take them all with her hands bound behind her back, didn't mean she could. Pressed up against the wall until her cheek felt every tiny grain, she thumbed the EMP grenade in her hand. Through the wall, she could see three guards armed with small arms approaching. In one smooth motion, she lobbed the grenade to the right, swung around the backside of the pillar and dived behind another one. A blinding flash of light filled the room as she landed. She peeked out to see that her opponents had the lights knocked out of them for the foreseeable future, but were otherwise unharmed.

Panting audibly, Anna implored, "Come on Elsa, I need that door open. Pretty please."

The voice crackled in her infolink, pleading, "I know, I'm trying. It is exceedingly difficult!"

The deep whirr of massive motors put Anna's neck hairs on end. Spooked, she looked through the wall only to see a massive security bot. It was 9 feet tall, with thick plate armor and fully automatic guns. No doubt it was covered in motion sensors and would see her the instant she moved from her hiding spot. Scrambling through possibilities, she tried to think of anything to take the beast down. Grabbing at her belt revealed that she was fresh out of grenades.

The column above her exploded, sending shockwaves all the way down to the floor. _'Crap, it saw me!'_ In a bout of desperation, she leapt for the nearest pillar, trying to roll out of another missile's path. It slammed into her, knocking her into the wall and exploding. Everything went white, and her hearing cut out.

"Simulation Terminated," announced a disembodied synthetic voice. The world, troops, and robot faded away until all that remained was an empty white world. The sound of footsteps echoed through the VR room; Elsa trotted over to where Anna lay on the floor grumbling.

"Ugh, no fair!"

Elsa kneeled down beside her, and said, "Sweetie, it isn't supposed to be fair. It's supposed to be accurate."

Anna's arms flopped down by her side, and she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I just need to be faster! If I could get on that thing's back I could tear its guns right off!"

Elsa furrowed her eyebrows, giving Anna a look. "I think that storming the gates might not be the best strategy. You're not a goddess." She blushed for a second, her mind running off track. "Well, I mean, y-you are. Just not..." She shook her head off to one side. "You know what I meant!"

"But I wanna kick some butt!"

Still on her knees, Elsa slid forward until her hands were on them as well, then looked Anna straight in the eyes. "You're already my hero, you don't need to kick anyone's butt. What we need is to get the SWARM root node before Hans does." _'But what is the optimal strategy?'_ she thought to herself, dragging her hand down her chin. A flashback hit her, and she remembered how Ashley escaped the hangar by cloaking and sneaking away. The de-cloaking certainly got the jump on her later on in the cabin. "I think you should try a stealth approach. Ashley has a cloaking device and sound dampers. Could we get you those upgrades?"

Anna nodded, then rolled back onto her hands. She pushed off of them and launched herself into the air. The world spun into a blur, then came into a clear focus as she landed upon her feet. "I know just who to call. You remember Dr. Mueller? Well, he was papa's go-to guy for augments. Almost everything in me is his work."

Albert Mueller had indeed been one of Agdar's closest allies, and once he was told the severity of the situation, he offered to let them come to his personal laboratory the instant he was available. When it was nearly time to leave, Anna sat in the garage with her legs folded underneath her, looking on as Elsa tinkered away with the car's control software.

"Almost done," she announced.

"You're sure this will work?" Anna asked.

"I am indeed. The car should meander up north by Cambridge, while we head to Dr. Mueller's personal lab in Brookline. While it's moving, this decoy transmitter should make it look like we're inside," she explained.

"Why couldn't we have put the decoys in papa's car? I like mine!"

The tinkering technician playfully bopped inquisitive Anna on the nose. "Because they'll be looking for us in your car, silly. Come on, let's go."

As Anna hopped into the passenger's side of their father's car, Elsa went to grab one of her heated jackets. She stopped, and thought about leaving it. There hadn't been any ice incidents since her spiritual journey, but she couldn't shake the feeling of caution.

_'Nah, I'll be fine without it,'_ she told herself, and slid into the car's pilot seat. The doors slid shut after her, the hydraulic actuator squealing faintly as the door moved.

* * *

Ghosts of the city skyline bent and scrolled by in the window, and through the reflections the entire world went by. Outside, the city was a pulsing, living meta-organism. Anna, however, was oblivious to this. She dug her elbow into the armrest and folded her fingers under her chin, flopping until her cheek slightly rolled over one eye. With a single huff, she shot a burst of air out of her mouth and up into her bangs. "Oh my gosh Elsa the autopilot is so sloooow. Put it in manual!"

Elsa closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, sweetheart. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves. Besides, I'm not like you. I can't dodge cars at two hundred kph."

"You're probably right," Anna conceded, going back to her silent idling. An eerie silence descended upon the car's cabin. It felt like there was a ghost, a soul only partially present. "I miss Kristoff."

Elsa got goosebumps all over, and she tried to distract herself with the city outside just like Anna had been seconds before. "I'm sure he's fine," she said with a flat, lifeless tone. As stoic as she pretended to be, her fortitude cracked at the sound of Anna sniffling. Her stomach churned at the thought of it. If he had been there, Kristoff no doubt would have made some tactless attempt at humor to lighten the mood. But no such joke was forthcoming, and the loss of the jester was its own cruel punchline.

"How many more people have to die?"

"Anna..."

The car shook violently at the impact of a fist meeting armrest. "I can't take this anymore! Everyone I love is being stolen from me..."

The cold glass rubbed up against Elsa's temple as she buried her face in it. That dehumanizing despair that she could feel from Anna was all too familiar. "Anna..." she started, her voice wavering. "I feel it too, I'm so scared. But if we give up, their sacrifices won't mean anything."

Anna tore herself away from the window, staring straight at Elsa. "How dare you accuse me of running. I'm desperate, not a coward!" Shaking, her breathing intensified and she lost herself in the throes of anger. "How am I supposed to fight someone who sneaks around, picking off my friends? If anything HE'S the coward!"

The accusation hurt, like her heart had been stabbed. She'd never seen this side of Anna before and the sheer intensity of it aimed straight at her was almost too much to bear. Speechless, she reached for words to smooth over the misunderstanding. "Oh gosh no, Anna I didn't mean to insinuate... I just..." She hung her head in shame at the admission she was about to make. "I had considered running. Looking back I know awful that would be, but I couldn't get the thought out of my head."

_'Of_ _course Elsa didn't actually think I'd run,'_ she thought, painfully reminded of her quick temper and readiness to jump to conclusions. Trying to center herself, she took a page out of Elsa's book and tried to replicate her sister's detachment in certain situations. It helped a little, and she thanked her lucky stars that she had someone to inspire her.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. You didn't do anything wrong," Anna said, in a soft, hushed voice. "I just feel so weird without my trio being whole, yanno?"

Without saying a word, Elsa gently put her right hand on Anna's arm, giving her a muted and graceful look of understanding. _'We'll make it whole,'_ she said without uttering a word.

A route alarm caught Elsa's attention. She ordered the car under a bridge and into a secluded parking spot nearby. "Come on, we'll walk from here so nobody sees us parked outside the lab." Once the car had glided to a stop, she swung around in her seat, grabbing the rifle by her legs with one hand and her handbag from the floor with the other. She walked around the back of the car to get at it, grabbing her handbag and rifle. Before leaving the car, she put the collapsed rifle into her handbag and slung the whole affair around her shoulder. She made her way swiftly down the sidewalk, standing tall and with purpose. Anna jogged up to her, bouncing along with her copper colored braids bobbing in the air. She took Elsa by the hand, and with levity in her voice said, "Oh I love getting upgrades!"

The city was less dense here, the skyline more like a scattered array of towers than a melded monolith of steel. Greenery was everywhere, but despite the relaxing landscape Elsa still found herself feeling on edge. The two of them walked out from under the bridge, only to be stopped dead in their tracks. A booming sound washed over the area, with it came rippling gusts of wind. Overhead, the sleek VTOL aircraft swung around, adjusting its jets until they were functioning as retro-thrusters. The side of the craft rolled open, and two imposing figures stood within, hungry and ready for a fight. They both jumped out of the craft, perched and poised in the air. After straightening both himself and his tie Hans pulled on his lapels and said, "Well, well, well. If it isn't the Skywalker sisters..."

All around, everything went silent, even the booming sound of the craft faded as it boosted into the distance. The amorous sisters instinctively pulled each other a bit closer; thoughts of tactics and terror swarmed in unison. A grand mental chess match ensued; both parties stared the other down. Moves played out long before they were actually made, and only the tiniest of micro-expressions gave the game away. Hans' irises contracted, contemplating an attack and in turn so did Anna, countering with a twitching body that was ready to jump to action at any second. Her pulse pounded in her ears, all while her implanted computer amplified every tiny motion of those around her. Social augments ran into overdrive, desperately looking any sign - a cocky smile or a spiked heart-rate. Anything to predict what would happen when the conflict exploded.

It was the first time Elsa had ever seen Hans. Every part of him was built with power in mind, his feet were giant metal hooves with a thick heel backing them, and the fibrous muscle wires underlying his limbs were armored with sharp, angular matte black metal plating. From the outside, it appeared that his organic parts started at the collarbone and went up from there; in essence, a head on a robot body. A head that Elsa realized was probably armed with a social analyzer that, unlike Anna's, had no ethical failsafes. She put on the best blank expression she could, hoping that her lifelong practice of emotional concealment might finally pay off.

"... a shame their parents aren't here to see us wipe the floor with them," he said, making the first move.

So much for concealing. Elsa shot her hand into her handbag, throttled the rifle by its buttstock and swung it outwards as hard as she could. The rifle telescoped outwards, and with a hefty clunk the metal shaft slammed into the limiting rings. It hissed to life with a flick of the switch. "I'm going to make sure you never hurt anyone ever again," she said in her most commanding voice, lifting the gun sights to her eyes.

The boldness caught Hans' attention, and he let just a hint of curiosity peek through. "Oh look Clarice, she's got a shock rifle. How cute."

Beside him, she folded her arms, lolled her head to the side and looked up at him. "What do you think we should do to them?"

Anna felt herself burning with rage all over. She recognized the woman standing next to Hans as Kristoff's new 'girlfriend', and started leaning into an aggressive posture without even thinking about it. "You! You said your name was Christine! What the hell! Where's Kristoff?"

No response but a contemptuous snarl, followed by wicked laughter.

Anna stomped her foot as hard as she could, splitting the sidewalk clean down the middle for at least a meter. "SAY SOMETHING!"

Clarice pulled out a hand-held remote, and in a slow, dramatic tone gave Anna exactly what she asked for. "Tell me Anna, do you always go around chattering like an idiot and hugging strangers?"

Anna had no idea what she meant by that. Bewildered, she tried to make heads or tails of it. By the time she made the connection between 'hugging strangers' and their first encounter, it was too late. Clarice activated a planted taser during that same encounter, causing searing bolts of pain to shoot across every inch of Anna's body. The powerful electric shock knocked her to the ground, causing her back to arch in uncontrollable spasms. It fired over and over again, forcing her body to flop along the ground. The pain quickly became too much to bear, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.

Before Clarice had even taken her finger off the button, a rippling shock-wave from Elsa's direction slammed into her. The electric surge danced harmlessly down her body, and just when she went to taunt Elsa for her failure, a volley of icicles hit her straight in the face. The impact knocked her backwards, high into the air, until the inevitable pull of gravity pulled her through a park bench and dragged her across the ground.

Calculating as ever, Hans took a cautious step backwards. Staring, he tried to work out what the icy power meant for his plans before unfolding a weapon of his own. From amongst the confines of his right arm emerged a long blade, but after a moment's hesitation he put it away, opting for his own taser rifle in the left arm instead. Inch by inch, he strafed towards where Clarice lay writhing in pain, aiming the rifle defensively as he moved.

Powerful gusts of wind churned the air like a monstrous turbine, whipping up a malevolent storm. The ground froze solid at the epicenter and jagged, chaotic flecks of frost crawled outwards in an expanding wave. Consumed by white-knuckle rage, It finally reached the breaking point, and Elsa shot a potent fist-full of super-chilled air at him.

Lighting quick reflexes kicked into overdrive and Hans jumped right over the attack. Elsa was unhinged, she delivered each wave of icy hatred with less control than the last. She could feel her pulse in her ears, and tunnel vision was starting to set in. The loss in her perception left her wide open, and while flying through the air along a wide arc, Hans retaliated with a several shots from his arm gun, forcing Elsa to retreat behind a wall of ice which caught the shock prods.

Hans dropped from the sky, and his knees pressed deep into the grass past the sidewalk across the street where Clarice had landed; he stowed his weapon to use his hands, then threw her over his shoulders. Once he was back on his feet, his weapon shot back out, aimed precariously at the ice wielding demigoddess. Every metal muscle in his body tensed. "I would love nothing more than to put an end to this winter, but I've got more important things to worry about and you... well, you don't have time to chase me down. Unless you want to share a barbecue dinner for two? Fresh meat perhaps?"

Horrifying mixtures of acrid, sweet and charcoal scents assaulted Elsa's nostrils. The icy wrath she'd balled up fizzled out. Intense shame and despair overcame her as she sprinted to Anna where she lay limp on the ground. The screams had subsided to a whimper, and with them the convulsions had also faded. There was no way to tell if it was because the attack was running out of energy or if Anna had simply stopped resisting. Despite this, strong pulses from the taser kept cropping up, determined to make the kill.

Elsa whipped the medical tricorder out from her handbag and got to work. The outside world faded away, and her focus turned entirely to bringing her love back from death's door. Expeditiously, she moved the scan target around, looking for the source of the shock. Panic incited hyperventilation and that insidious shadow of failure loomed overhead. Finally, she found the source of the attack – a trident electrode accompanied by a power box. It was partially embedded into Anna's back, by the lower end of the thoracic curve.

The electrode responded to being scanned by going into fits and pumping the scraps of energy it had left into Anna's flesh. Without thinking, Elsa went to grab the electrode and rip it out. Pain shot through her hand, singing flesh. It took everything she had not to curse out at the top of her lungs, and she cradled the burnt flesh in her mouth. Time was running out – the tricorder reported that Anna's lungs were starting to stutter and stop, and without thinking Elsa did the only thing she knew how. She froze.

A swirl of ice wrapped around the electrode, thickening into a compact shell. Elsa closed her eyes and focused, letting the energy flow through her. Her hands shuddered trying to control the raw power flowing through them, to the point where tiny puffs of steam were starting to wick off from the potent temperature fluctuations. With every ounce of strength she had, she pulled and pulled. All her body ached, muscles clamped until they screamed in protest. But she pulled anyways, gritting her teeth.

And then it came free. The electrode hit the ground and flashed into a puff of smoke, the vapors a final concession of defeat.

The battle was over, but the war still hung in the balance. The crowd around had all backed away, a few lingering to watch but once it had become clear that Elsa was in control, they left. Nerves were protesting less, and Elsa finally stopped shaking. With the sparks gone, she took the diagnostic cable from the medical tricorder, pulled it out from the spindle and plugged it into the back of Anna's head. The access codes she'd gotten from the schematics worked perfectly, and her suspicions were confirmed – during the attack Anna's health systems had cut her brain and heart off from everything else, isolating them from the worst of the damage. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that Anna's systems were all starting to reboot and come on-line.

Consciousness hit Anna like a fist to the face. Her eyes shot open, and the very first thing she did was cry out in pain, and shoot up in place.

"Hold on Anna, I'm on it," she said in her most reassuring voice. Elsa held the tricorder up to her face, squinting to get the best view possible. Going straight for the pain diagnostics, she commanded Anna's medullary implant to filter out all the pain signals.

"Oh I could kiss you right now, you perfect thing you," Anna said, letting her head roll back with relief. She grimaced at the sight of her charred flesh and ripped skin. "How bad is it?"

_'You're lucky to be alive...'_

"You'll be okay. You're running low on nanites though, so you'll heal rather slowly."

"Oh, I can fix that," Anna said, trying to move her hands. They moved awkwardly, occasionally stopping, intermittently quaking. Discouraged, Anna gave up. "Elsa, you remember the storage slots in my legs?"

She did remember, and nodded in the affirmative. "I think I know where this is going." Thankfully, the access doors hadn't fused shut, and Elsa retrieved the emergency energy packets from within. Her posture shifted, and she sat herself back by Anna's side. The slick feeling of Anna's skin caused her own to crawl, but she pressed on, supporting Anna with one hand, and pouring the packets into her recovering girlfriend's mouth with the other.

Chemical synthesis kicked into high gear; the injured body reacted to the high-octane fuel with great vigor, voraciously synthesizing more nanobots for the recovery effort. Finally starting to feel like herself again, Anna turned to her caretaker and asked, "What happened to dumb-face and bitch queen?"

"They escaped. You were more important."

Shameful defeat could be seen in Anna's watering eyes. "I'm so sorry Elsa! I'm so stupid and careless, I just ran up to her and hugged her. She was so sweet at first..."

Elsa shook her head. "No. Don't ever apologize for who you are. The way you love readily is exactly why I love you so." She hooked her arm under Anna's and offered what little support she could, trying to push the awful slick texture into the back of her mind. "Come on, let's get you to Dr. Mueller."

"Snowflake?"

"What is it Sparky?"

"I knew you'd keep your promise."

* * *

The front door to Albert Mueller's home opened, and the stench of burnt flesh hit him straight away. His eyes widened in horror at Anna's wounds. "What happened to you?"

"We were attacked by Hans," she said, wobbling in place.

He rushed them inside and guided them down the stairs into his basement laboratory. Anna grimaced at the messy trail of flesh and blood she was leaving all across his house, but he insisted that the bots would clean it up well enough.

"Wait here," he said, walking off into the blackness before them. Just as he passed the line of shadow the overheads illuminated the room in a soft glow, white with just a touch of green. The entire room was neat and orderly, not a speck of dirt or dust and every tool imaginable was mounted to the wall. In the far corner there were a few computerized workstations. They were slightly more advanced than the typical workstations Elsa had seen, they had luxurious ergonomic seating and instead of having a simple horizontally curved screen, one had a quarter-spherical screen, another had an empty holographic space for collaborative 3d modeling and conception, and the last had a similar empty space with markers on rods as well as flat surfaces for a single user augmented reality workspace. Nearby she saw a console that looked a great deal like the 3d printers she'd used many times before.

The last vestiges of adrenal flood ebbed away. With a setup like this they would have no problem healing Anna.

Bits of motion from the center of the room caught Elsa's attention. A circular metal panel turned out to actually be a platform, it raised to be slightly off the ground. Around the platform, cylindrical slits in the floor turned into rings, rising until they were at varying heights around the center. A panel in the ceiling retracted and out from the hole a long, thick metal arm with beveled edges and long grooves descended until its tip was a quarter meter off the ground.

Albert left the closest workstation and walked across the room to where Elsa was still awkwardly sitting under Anna's arm, sharing the burden of balancing her with the wall. "Help me get her over to the platform."

"I can do it!" Anna insisted. She took to her feet awkwardly, and slowly tried to walk into the lab. Her metal muscles groaned at the stress; her ambulation was skewed by the AI in her limbs being stuck in learning mode. Her right leg made a horrible screeching noise, and just as she started to fall Elsa and Albert caught her.

"Seriously sweetie, let us help you," Elsa said in a soft, pleading voice.

Anna grumbled and with a great deal of effort from all three of them, she arrived safely at the platform. Dr. Mueller instructed Anna to hold still, and after some impotent grumbling protest she obliged. He grabbed the bottom of the giant metal arm that came from above and manipulated the arm until the base lined up with Anna's lower back.

"Doctor, how can I help?" Elsa asked.

"You came in here holding a medical tricorder, right?"

"That's right. I'm getting proficient with it, I think."

_'Proficient.'_ It sounded so clinical, so cold, and it quickly got under Anna's skin. "She's so much more than just 'proficient'! Elsa is amazing and she saved my life out there!"

A warm blush came across Elsa's face, and she took the opportunity to hide it and grab the tricorder at the same time. The blush lingered however, and Anna caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye as she turned and smiled. Softly, Elsa protested, "Hey, I can't plug this in if you're turning your head away!"

But Anna wasn't having any of it. She was smiling that beautiful smile of hers and not even the horrific wounds could hide nor tarnish the spirit within. The two stared at each other briefly, draw in by the other's energy. Elsa inched forward, lips barely puckered.

Click. The cable locked into the back of Anna's head with a perfect fit, and with a wry grin Elsa backed away.

Anna's mouth opened in shock as she realized the deception. "Hey no fair!"

"Had to be done," Elsa replied.

Nearby, Albert looked up from his prep work on the mech arm. An eyebrow raised with his curiosity. Something about the name Elsa was vaguely familiar, like a whisper in the wind heard long ago. When he couldn't put his finger on it, he interrupted them to finish his request from earlier. "Now that you're hooked up to her, can you please open her mounting bolt covers?"

That was a term she'd never heard before. "What do you mean, mounting bolt covers?"

Eager to get involved herself, Anna spoke up. "It should be part of the diagnostics menu. Don't worry though, I think I got it." She furrowed her eyebrows, and awkwardly contorted her face. Three fist-sized holes opened up along her back. "Haha! I'm awesome!" she cheered. The doctor activated a panel on the arm, causing three bolts that matched the holes to pop out, and they slid down a track until they lined up perfectly. Elsa laid her hands on the cool metal of the mech arm, and moved her head to observe it. Seeing the bolts and holes align conveyed the idea, and without a word, she moved to help. With some exertion, they got Anna into place.

The machine let out a loud click, and everything snapped together. A powerful motor in the ceiling spun up, and pulled Anna off the ground. Sliding panels with hand restraints rotated outwards, pulling her into a into a Da Vinci-pose. "Whoa, I swear I'll never get used to these things," Anna remarked with a giggle.

Dutifully, Elsa watched Anna's internal systems for anything out of the ordinary. She stood behind the rings while the extra surgery arms dropped down from the ceiling, cutting all the fabric of Anna's clothing off and discarding it. Despite her best attempts to stay focused, she couldn't avert her gaze as the scorched shirt fell to the ground in tatters, disintegrating into the air. The memory of Anna's body from about a week ago stood in stark contrast. Where there was once angelic perfection, there was now horrific injury. Like a mining disaster it was physically painful to look at, but impossible to ignore.

The tricorder beeped with a low-level warning sound, and caught her attention. The text 'I'll be fine snowflake, relax' had appeared within a center-screen window. Anna winked at her playfully.

_'Always thinking of me, even at a time like this...'_ she thought, breaking something that almost resembled a smile.

Some of the surgical arms had moved to Anna's limbs and started peeling off the damaged skin, revealing the metal musculature underneath. Fortunately none of them had been damaged, and new skin could simply be draped over top. It would reduce the healing workload the nanites had to perform, and would also make installing the cloaking device easier. Albert called Elsa over to one of the workstations so that they could print the new skin. She took one step off the platform and looked back at Anna who was now not just nude, but genuinely naked. A twinge of instinctual shame hit her, and she knew it was irrational but to look upon it made her feel as though she'd violated Anna's privacy. Looking at the floor, she prayed to herself that it was the last time she ever had to see her beloved in such a state.

Once they'd finished printing the new skin, Elsa sat in one of the workstations, still turned around to face the wall. Albert walked over pushing a cart, the squealing tires caught Elsa's attention. When she looked over to see what he'd brought, she jumped in her chair. Anna's legs and arms lay lifelessly on the cart. Unsure of what she'd see, she turned back to see Anna's mostly healed, limbless torso hanging in the air. Anna promptly said "Hey quit checkin me out ya perv!" and stuck her tongue out.

Elsa nearly fainted on the spot.

The work to the limbs was mostly simple, thanks to the excellent installation guide and the expertise of both technicians. While testing the cloak, Elsa held a half-invisible leg in her hands, and without thinking asked, "... how well did you know Agdar?"

Albert put Anna's right arm down and rolled his chair back, leaning into it. It was clearly a big question, Elsa noticed, since he stared off into the distance and went silent for some time.

"I met him back in the early 20's, he was just a mid-level manager at some aerospace company. Which would have made him, oh about your age. He's about 6 years younger than me, I think. Anyways, something about him always felt right, you know? He had a way with people, you'd always walk away from him with more clarity than you went in with."

Something about the explanation wasn't quite sitting right with Elsa. By her calculations, that made Dr. Mueller at least 50, and he didn't even look much older than her. Still, she couldn't help wanting to hear more about her father, so she dropped it and kept listening.

A fond smile of remembrance came across the doctor's face. "He was one of the first patients I installed a social augmentation into. And I'll tell you what, if you thought he was a natural born leader before you should've seen it afterwards. I remember his wife insisting on watching the whole operation just to make sure the ethics programs got put in. Those two..." He dropped his downwards, reverent tone showing as he trailed off. "... They did a lot of good. Hopefully they'll get their dream of a better world."

Elsa put the leg down, having finished with it. It was time to go bolt Anna's limbs back on, but she had one last question to ask. "How did someone like Hans take over the leading biotech company on the entire planet?"

Hints of Albert's true age crept into the conversation. Not through his appearance, but through the weary tone with which he spoke. He looked at her intently, eyes searching for something. "You're completely bio-natural, aren't you? No augmentations?"

"None," she said, solemnly shaking her head.

"How different this world must look to you," he said, sighing deeply. "Most people... they're good people. They use their augments to do the things they love, express themselves and even re-make themselves however they want. Greed and selfishness became a thing of the past for most of them, especially since augmentation took off at the same time automation freed the workers. Greed and selfishness pretty much died overnight, at least here." A fond twinkle in his eye gleamed momentarily before weariness returned. He ran his hand and fingers through deep brown hair, one elbow on the table. "... Except for people like him."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It used to be that the world needed that kind of cunning and ruthlessness to keep turning. When it changed and you couldn't use desperate people to build an empire… People like him lost their purpose in life. What does a predator do with no prey?"

Despite her best efforts, Elsa couldn't find any words to respond with. There was only a hollow feeling of understanding. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Anna, who had her eyes closed; humming away to music that her computer played in her mind. "I think... that she's the key to setting all this right. Don't you?"

Aged, wise eyes stared back at her. He nodded silently.

The two of them wheeled Anna's limbs back over to her, and she giggled in anticipation, bouncing as much as her situation allowed. As they set to work reattaching her limbs, she playfully chastised the both of them for ogling her nude body, despite neither of them actually doing it. "Oooh, can I speak to the Chief of Medicine? I'd like to file a complaint about a doctor and a nurse that just left me _hanging_ for hours!"

Professional as always, Albert ignored the comment, and continued to re-attach Anna's left arm. Elsa on the other hand, was completely unprepared for Anna's joking innuendo and struggled to bolt Anna's rotator-cuff muscles onto the metal cage implanted within her chest. She decided to just let him handle it, and stormed off to the 3d printer on the other side of the room to print Anna some new clothes. With any luck, she could finally get some damn modesty into the situation.

"Aww come on Elsa, I'm just ribbin' ya!"

She rolled her eyes. _'There is no way I am actually related to this woman...'_

Once the clothing was done, she grabbed a pair of scissors as well as the garments, then walked swiftly across the room with purpose in her stride. She slid a nondescript pair of panties up Anna's leg stubs, looking up and giving her sister a sarcastic look. Anna just stuck her tongue out. Elsa swung under Anna's now fully attached left arm, and got to work trimming all of the singed bits from Anna's hair. As she worked it down, it was looking more and more like Anna would wind up with a pixie cut.

Tiny remnants of the scent of burning hair hit Elsa, and she winced at the painful memory of her lover writhing on the ground. It burned into her soul, and in that moment she finally made up her mind. Anna must be protected. At all costs. Even _that_ cost.

"Dr. Mueller?" Elsa asked.

"What is it?" he said, not taking his eyes up from his work.

She let out a deep sigh. No going back now. She thanked herself that Anna was still restrained, and hoped it would be enough. "Can you look at me to see if I'm compatible with dermal armor, an infolink and an neural computer?"

Anna's head whipped around to face her, so forcefully that the platform shook. "WHAT? Elsa... you can't just... I mean... we haven't talked abo... Are you serious?"

Anna's right leg had the last of its connections made, and kicked slightly as neural signals started flowing through circuitry. Albert looked up at the two of them with a slightly concerned expression. "It looks like the two of you have something personal to work out. I'll be upstairs getting all this blood off me."

The instant the door closed behind him, the atmosphere in the room shifted as immediately as the sound traveling through it. Elsa went to speak, but Anna beat her to it. "You haven't thought about this enough. I would know."

_'Dammit, I just got done thinking about it,'_ she thought, doubting herself for just an instant. The memory returned and with it, her conviction. "I've thought about it plenty. I need to be perfect..." Silence befell her, and she yearned to say that which she felt so passionately. "... perfect, like you."

"Elsa! You..." Anna started, pulling against the restraint behind her. "Ugh get me out of this damn thing," she protested. Elsa obliged, lowering the arm until Anna's feet touched the ground. Anna disengaged the locks herself, then marched right over to where Elsa was standing. She felt the fight leave her, a sincere tenderness manifesting instead. "Elsa, you don't have to change anything. You're already perfect and you'll own my heart forever."

She nearly melted under Anna's gentle caress upon her cheek. Gently clasping the recently re-skinned hand in her own, overwhelmed by love. Weakly, she whispered, "This is what I mean. You're barely on your feet and you're already sweeping me off of mine." Her fist clenched, her face hardened and eyes narrowed. "No. I won't let my weakness endanger you. I'm upgrading and that's final."

Anna smiled back at her. "As long as it's what you want, snowflake. I'll support it." Her face lit up in joyous surprise as a realization came to her. A flashing beam of light started at her feet and whooshed straight across her body, until all that could be seen of her was a faint outline and a slight blur. "I hope you enjoy your upgrades as much as I enjoy mine. Oh we should play hide-and-go-seek!"

The doctor returned far earlier than either sister had expected, they were only ankle-deep in casual conversation when he arrived. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "I know who you are now... I'd never forget that ice."

Elsa straightened in her seat, and feigned ignorance as hard as she could "What do you mean?"

He looked awkwardly at the two of them, realizing how flirtatious they'd been. _'Whatever,'_ he thought, putting it out of his mind. "You're not compatible with any implanted technology. Those tiny little ice shards of yours attack everything. I took a biopsied chunk of flesh and tried hooking it up to a machine with synthetic neuroglia. It took awhile, but frost wrapped around the channel and pushed it out. I've only ever seen that once before, and that was over 20 years ago."

There was a marked change in his temperament once he did get to the good news. "I looked at my old notes to confirm, and the rejection happened 7 times more slowly than it did when you were an infant."

One wouldn't know it was good news by the look on Elsa's face. She sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to deal with her current limitations. The seating let out a whump sound when Elsa collapsed backwards into it. Dejected, she looked at the ground. Anna put her hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her a forlorn look. As she went to pull her hand away, she clipped the small computer still strapped to Elsa's arm. A flicker of inspiration hit her, and she asked "Wait a second, Elsa only needs this stuff for a short time. Why bother with implants?"

"First you're going to tell me what she needs and why, and we'll work from there."

It didn't take them long to get to work patching together a solution. Back down in the lab, Elsa sat amongst a slew of wires and gadgets, looking over the entire lot. "What is that?" she asked, pointing to a small, wafer-like device.

Dr. Mueller responded, "That is a bone conduction speaker and microphone unit. It's like an infolink you wear in your mouth, instead of having implanted in your skull." He directed her to try putting it into her mouth. It was tasteless, thankfully, and it hooked around one of her back molars with a fit that first felt soft, but hardened as the material set. Even though she was expecting it, the sound still caught her off guard when Anna spoke up.

"Hey cutie! Does it work?"

The sensation made her jump.

"Hah! Looks like it does!"

"That is so weird. Nice though," Elsa said. "What else have we got?"

From within a box emerged something resembling a white headband but far more slender. Elsa did what she was told and slid it onto her head horizontally until the tips were just above her ears and the apex of the curve stayed just above her hairline. With some adjusting of her hair, it disappeared underneath.

Still no explanation of what it did though. She was wondering if they were intentionally trying to build her up to some kind of surprise. Anna was a joker for sure, but the doctor seemed far less humorous.

A pair of glasses changed hands, and Elsa took a good look at them. The lenses curved inwards, meant to provide coverage to the entire field of view even when looking straight up or down. She wondered why, since the glass was transparent. The frame was constructed of a gorgeous brushed titanium, the nose pads and temple tips were a soft material in egg-shell color. At the doctor's suggestion, she put them on. She watched with growing curiosity as both Anna and Albert continued to tinker.

Suddenly, the text 'initializing' briefly popped up in her view, on the surface of the glasses. It disappeared and the gears started turning in Elsa's head. A familiar arrow appeared at the top of her vision, pointing downwards and pulsating gently.

"Alright, I want you to visualize you're using the wrist interface to your computer. Think about tapping on your wrist."

Focused, Elsa thought as hard as she could about dragging downwards. It worked! She had access to everything, her entire digital world always available but never obscuring or distracting. Excitement brewed as she contemplated the boundless opportunity of the new tools.

Loosely clasping her fists, she exclaimed with a grin "This is awesome! Oh gosh I could hack anything like this."

"You think so?" Anna asked, eyeing Elsa with intrigue.

"Totally!" Elsa exclaimed, uncharacteristically enthused. Ever since she'd made her way to Earth, the level of technology had blown her away, it was utterly unlike anything she'd seen on the station. It was finally starting to look more like a wonderland to her than a dystopian hell, the more she realized how much of an outlier Hans was. She turned to her father's old friend, and her temperament changed for the more conscientious.

"I know you and my father were close," she started, forcing herself to look him in the eyes. It was hard, for her, the slivers of inadequacy that haunted her soul made it hard to look anyone in the eyes, save for Anna. "You've done so much to help… I don't know how I could ever repay you." She looked away, and with a lower tone said, "I'll give you full access to his bank account. Take whatever you think is payment enough for helping us."

Anna nodded in approval. _'I don't give a damn about the money'_ , she thought. All she cared about was doing her part.

"Thank you," he replied. "Still, money won't matter if Hans claims all of humanity. We'll talk about this after that's taken care of."

Standing tall and erect, there was a confident glow about the young technician turned leader. _Something_ within her had come to life these past few months, what it was she could not know, but it was there regardless, tangible and sure.

Something was wrong with Anna, Elsa noticed out of the corner of her eye. There was a look of horror and shock.

"Anna, what's wrong?"

Vacantly, Anna managed to say, "Listen to this message I just got from Dr. Lancaster…"

Static and fuzzy noise eventually coalesced into vocal frequencies. "I… tried to stop him. He broke in. Guards dead, everywhere." In the recording, Ashley coughed heavily, the sounds of sparks and burning equipment roared loudly. "Anna I'm sending you his GPL codes… Stop him..."

The recording cut out, and a deathly silence filled the room.


	13. Might of the Hive

For all its imagery of rebellion and subversion, being a hacker came surprisingly easy to Elsa despite her being neither rebellious nor subversive. Much to her pleasure, the new tools augmented her ability profoundly and her first test went off flawlessly. She'd summoned Kristoff's motorbike from its garage in Cambridge. The decision to appropriate the bike had been a quick one. Both sisters chilled at how Hans had managed to track them across the city even with their attempted decoy.

The two lovers raced through the night, connected at the waist through interlocked fingers. Anna had taken her favorite place - the pilot's seat. It was a bittersweet feeling. Part of her loved being on the machine at all, but her conscience lamented the circumstances. Her face hardened at the thought.

_'When this is over, I'm making Kristoff get a sidecar for this bad girl.'_

A mechanical foot slammed down, pushing the shift lever down and moving the transmission into a brand-new gear. The engine roared and the bike reared in agreement. Even the loud wind and engine were no interruption for them, as Elsa's wearable infolink sidestepped the noise entirely. On her glasses, directions to Hans' current location glowed bright and true.

"Hans is on the move, he's heading eastwards from CyberDynamics HQ. I suspect he's headed for the Advanced Research Lab."

Anna acknowledged by banking hard to the left, swerving through the legions of autonomous cars. In the distance, the main Evotech building towered overhead.

The curious sensation of vibration struck Elsa on her wrist, and her glasses told her a call was incoming from Dr. Mueller.

"I'm leaving New England in case there's blowback from all this. I like being alive. Anyways, I just sent Anna a map of the building to help you plan your assault. Good luck."

Several blocks away from their destination, Elsa was caught by a flashback. The missile slamming into Anna and exploding haunted her. Pushing the image out of her mind, she gently reminded Anna that storming the front gates wouldn't work any better than it did before.

"Mhmm," came the reply. The bike dipped again, curving into a parking structure and up the winding pathways. Regularly, like a row of markers along a lonely highway, pillar after pillar passed by. Gaunt white lights from overhead painted fuzzy lines of pallor on the hard floor receded into shadowy corners. Finally on the roof, low walls with slick yellow paint kissed the borders of the night sky. All around the city surrounded them, light from the windows forming a galaxy of luminous points.

Anna connected her retinal display to Elsa's glasses so that they could both see the map, and the two of them planned their route together. A bright glowing circle showed their current location, just below the security office.

"First we need to shut down the turrets and bots, or we're dead from the start," Elsa said.

Anna shuddered, reminded of her failures in the simulation. "I'll leave that to you," she said, turning her attention to the map. Her focus darted back and forth, searching. The building, while elegant in the upper levels, was an impenetrable labyrinth underneath. She saw one room in particular that had no details listed within, but had a slithering entry hallway. All along its length were what looked like guard posts. "This one looks the hardest to get into," she said, highlighting it with her own glowing marker.

"I agree. If I were going to protect something, that's precisely where I would put it." Swaying uncomfortably, she dragged her right hand down her chin. "There's still the issue of how we get inside the building in the first place."

Anna nodded in agreement, and paused a moment to think. Past the long row of empty vehicles, she strode over to the far wall. Once there she looked down at the street, watching the traffic go by a heart-stopping distance below. She saw a mostly uninterrupted stream of passersby, the occasional chatting group, and even flirtatious lovers enjoying the company of another.

Anna could feel her sister's observant gaze at her back. She shook her head and tried to focus. Fingers clasped around the hip-high barrier, supporting a body that slowly leaned over. Her neck craned out over the urban chasm. Across the gap lay a sea of glistening glass, lined by vertical piers of concrete. In a flash, her retinal displays showed her a perfect trajectory and told her how thick the glass was. Then she dashed back to where Elsa was waiting with one eyebrow raised.

"I can get us in there. Hop on my back, snowflake," she said, grinning.

_'Why is she grinning?'_  Elsa thought, inciting a brief flare of intuitive horror. It exploded when she figured out the plan. "W-wait a second Anna," she said, waving her hands just a bit and stepping backwards. With one hand held towards Anna, finger raised, she stretched the other towards the window, then invaded it with a legion of frosty shards. She relaxed, dropping to a neutral pose. "I've reduced the integrity of the window, we should have no difficulty breaching it now." One last look into Anna's eyes, and it gave her the strength to climb onboard. She let out a deep breath and held on as tightly as her thin fingers would allow.

Anna tore across the parking lot at breakneck speed in a manner not unlike using a jackhammer as a pogo-stick. A mighty kick launched them into the air, the extreme g-force hearkening back to sweet memories of tearing through Lunar orbit in a tiny craft. Nostalgia shattered, as did the glass, when the two assailants smashed through it. The shards clattered together, sounding like a kinetic assault on an army of tiny wind chimes.

"What the hell?" exclaimed security chief Johnson, the sound of his voice bending as he whipped in place to face the calamity. Years of training manifested in a smooth transition to a fighting pose. His wrist as a hinge point, a tonfa-style stun baton came sizzling out of his arm.

Elsa dove behind a nearby desktop workstation. Anna, on the other hand, was primed and eager for combat. With a smirk, she taunted her opponent by waving him on as though to say 'bring it'.

The scent of burning air whiffed by her; she ducked his swing and once behind him delivered a calculated blow to the back of the head, relieving him of his consciousness. He hit the ground with a satisfying thud.

Anna hadn't even finished dragging the body behind a fortress of heavy furniture before Elsa had swooped into the previously occupied seat. With seconds to spare, she overrode the deadswitch tied to the chief's consciousness. Looking up from the console and putting on an inquisitive look, she asked, "What if he wakes up?"

The click of handcuffs replied before Anna said a word. "He's not going anywhere snowflake. Any luck with your stuff?"

"Yes! Come look." She waved her hand towards the station, one finger curled inwards. "I was able to disable all of the robots." She hooked Anna around the waist, pulling her in closer. "And, check this out. Hans is in that room alright, the one we looked at earlier?"

The camera for that room had gone completely static, and a nearby diagram was indicating regular spikes in power draw. "Nice catch, snowflake. I'll run down there and tear the place up. Open the door for me please?"

Brilliant light from the hallway spilled into the room in the meager space between the giant halves of door. Anna stood in the growing lumination, bouncing on her knees and flexing her hands repeatedly. She took a single step out into the hallway before the sound of her name from behind stopped her, and she spun to face it. Elsa poked her head out above the workstation, her brows upturned in a pleading fashion.

"Just in case we don't make it... I love you."

Only the upper half of Anna's body could be seen, the cloak of invisibility encroaching ever further upwards. Just before her face disappeared, she replied with a wry smirk, "I love you _more!_ "

Hot under the collar, Elsa barely managed to stifle instinctual protest. If she hadn't been worried about being overheard she would have shouted all manner of rebuttals, but she had no choice but to fume in her seat. Her scowling face was hidden by the massive doors crawling shut.

* * *

Underneath a faceted, spear-like chandelier lay a cavernous void surrounded on all sides by stout walls lined by pipes and beams. Echoes of hidden machinery reverberated through the space, the pulse of the facility thrumming along oblivious to the evil about to unfold. Far below, against the grid-like pattern of the floor tiles, two shadowy forms stood near a glowing console.

Behind a thick layer of transparent sapphire, a spherical piece of machinery, solid white with beveled edges and matte black trim lines waited expectantly. In the equatorial region, just above a trim line the words 'SWARM root node' were emblazoned into the material.

A squealing hiss came forth when the sapphire container started hinging upwards along the uppermost edge. A long cable came undulating out from the sphere, pulled along by black metal hands. Short strands of red hair parted, pushed aside by mechanical fingers. All was silent as Clarice inserted the uplink cable into the back of Hans' head. Bits flew across the wire, delivering digital transformation at blazing speeds. Less than a minute later, the transfer was complete. Hans removed the cable and held it outwards, offering it.

To Clarice, such a simple sight being so evocative was a new sensation. She held the uplink cable in her hand, staring at it. It was just a plastic-coated array of extruded metal wires, dull and lifeless. If it had been anything else, she wouldn't have given it a second thought. And yet this nondescript entity stared her down, the promise of godlike intelligence and unparalleled intimacy sparked chills all over her body, flesh and metal alike. Without a second's hesitation she plunged it in, soaking up the program and all its power.

At once, everything felt changed in a subtle, yet uniform way. She felt stronger, even a bit bigger. Though no-one spoke aloud, she heard Hans' voice clearly. Not from aside where he stood, but from within. As though she'd thought it herself, just in his voice. The elaborate, electrically-charged dance that had gone on between them since they'd met switched dynamics instantly, and the connection was still only on its lowest setting.

Standing in each other's space with a scorching closeness, their pulses and brainwaves began to synchronize. The pace of their union ramped up with each tiny increment of the connection setting. All of their ambitions and desires were laid bare before the other, each one triggering emotive responses in a feedback loop of growing consensus. Barrier after barrier fell, until something changed. The last barrier felt ineffably different, and each knew intuitively that if they crossed it, neither individual would survive the utter unity of the connection. One last consensus was achieved, and that was to dial things back just a bit and lock in the monarch protocol.

Clouds of cold steam rolled off the stasis pods wheeled into the room. Together the two linked minds pulled a poor soul out of one pod, propped him up by the root node and uploaded the software. The monarch protocol immediately forced him into slave unit mode, stripping him of his autonomy and turning him into little more than a mental augmentation for Hans and Clarice. Sharing in the boost to their consciousness, they smiled devilishly at each other, and promptly got to work adding as many new drones as they could to their twisted collective.

Tiny echoes of a massive quake made their way to the floor upon which the conspirators stood, followed by plumes of dust and chunks of concrete falling from the ceiling. It piqued their attention, but not nearly as much as the building wide alert that followed.

"CONTAINMENT LOST, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Both hiveminded leaders tried to access the security system simultaneously, only to find themselves locked out from the surveillance devices. Silent consensus ensued, and Clarice's body left the room to investigate, along with a contingent of drones. In perfect unison and formation they slid into the winding exit corridor.

* * *

A distraction was the last thing Anna needed at this particular moment. Vertical containment doors bit down before her like a massive vise grip. Her pulse shot up, if she didn't make it through those doors neither her nor the poor soul slung across her shoulder would survive. Silently hoping for the best, she heaved off her spring-loaded legs as hard as she could. The door barely clipped her, and she stuck the landing safely on the far side.

The angry squawking in her head threatened to break her concentration. "What the hell Anna! There are innocent people here!"

_'Yes, I know, snowflake.'_  she thought in response without actually replying. With the back of her free hand on her hips, she shifted her weight to the side and put a frown on her face. The pile of unconscious bodies was similarly discouraging. She pulled open the entrance to an air duct nearby and shuffled the body slung across her shoulder into it.

"I know knocking out the fusion reactor was drastic but hear me out – who knows what the heck is gonna happen?! I needed to get all those innocent people OUT of the building!"

"Hrmph!" Elsa retorted, "what about the technicians in the reactor room?"

"Sleeping like babies," she replied, smugly closing the air duct behind her. The arrangements may be cramped, but everyone would certainly live.

"Still, you're being reckless."

"As long as you keep on top of the bots, I should be fine," Anna said, tip-toeing through the door from the power room to the hallway. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of a massive bot, only to let out a sigh of relief when it slumped over and powered down. With a hint of triumph, Elsa spoke up in her ear.

"No... I love you more."

Jittery from the adrenaline coursing through her, Anna let one hand fall to her chest, feeling it rise and fall furiously. "M-maybe just this once."

"Heh, maybe," she replied before the tone in her voice dropped all warmth. "Oh my god... that's it."

"That's what?" Anna demanded.

"There are 15 people walking in perfect lock-step down that hallway we talked about earlier."

Anna nodded in acknowledgment, then brought up the floor map in her retinal displays. The path to get down there was straightforward now that the guard posts had been evacuated, and as long as she could find a way past the security doors she'd be able to get to the root of this mess.

Anna stood at the top of a dizzying staircase, staring down at the spiraling pathway down. _'Might as well take the quick way down.'_  By the time she'd finished her thought she'd already cleared the handrail, descending in a blur. Closing her eyes in adrenal bliss, she felt her skin ripple all over with goosebumps, and reveled in the air rushing past her. Kinetic energy ripped through the ground when she hit, churning the floor into a wave which settled into a crater. Her head held high, Anna strode out of the stairwell.

Eerie silence filled the air with a surreality unlike any she'd ever known. Here, the entire world had a mirror image in the impossibly slick floor, the swirling patterns twisting the image in a manner most wicked. Lights from above, support beams and piping all contorted menacingly.

_'Come on, get your head in the game,'_  she told herself. Her usually unconquerable spirit was starting to get a little frazzled. Hiveminds, creepy underground research facilities and tyrannical psychopaths whirled together into an overwhelming mess and she struggled with it. It felt as though something was going to blindside her.

A solid metal vertical door stood before her. Her augmented vision couldn't see through it, no matter which settings or power levels she tried. Hands tried to pry into the midsection, to pull the doors open. Despite a titanic effort, it wouldn't budge. She pulled so hard that she fell backwards onto her butt with a thud.

Not content with the failure, she scanned the room all over, looking for any weaknesses in the walls. She found what looked like cracks, and punched as hard as she could, torquing at the legs for maximum impact.

Nothing but some concrete chunks and a stress warning in her arm. She plopped back onto the ground, defeated this time.

"Hey Elsa, I'm stuck."

"I'm on it. This could take awhile though, the door controls are on a separate system from the surveillance net."

"I'm not going anywhere."

A squeal from actuators hissed into the air, and grinding noises filled the room. Anna perked up, amazed at how quickly her partner had succeeded. "Wow that was fast! Elsa you did it!"

"That wasn't me."

Blood ran cold. Unknown horror befell as Anna watched the doors part. Dread turned to rage, a familiar nemesis appeared.

_'That stupid succubus.'_

Clarice stared Anna down with a searing anticipation. When she spoke, two voices came forth in an unnerving echo. "Heading for the root node, are you Anna?"

The sound gave Anna the creepy-crawlies all over. "Wha... how many of you are in there? It doesn't matter... You can't stop me," she replied. Her fists clenched and her face hardened with determination.

_'I am gonna mess you up you f-'_

"We're getting really, really tired of your meddling. We're still young and need to assimilate more. But no matter, we're still stronger than you." Clarice's body sauntered straight past her as though she didn't exist. Anna could do nothing but stare in confusion at first. But when the body made it to the stairs, her blood boiled at the audacity. "Get over here and fight me you coward!"

The body whipped back around, eyeing her with malicious joy. "Oh you'll get your fight. And we won't need ten or twenty drones to do it. Here, tangle with our favorite one, why don't you?"

Anna followed the pointing finger across the room, past the doors from whence the menace had arrived only to see a familiar form emerge from the shadows. Her heart ached, the pain forcing her lips to quiver. Barely a whisper passed them.

"... Kristoff?"

No answer. If there was any semblance of Kristoff left within that thing, it wasn't responding. Instinctively, Anna dumped hundreds of kilograms of force into a sharp right hook behind her. The attack whiffed, exacting vengeance on nothing but empty air. Clarice had already fled up the stairwell. Bottling up her rage for later, she turned only to barely miss the Kristoff-turned-drone diving for her. It flew through the air and slid out across the slick marble floor.

Rising off the ground, the desperate woman pleaded with her attacker, "Kristoff! I know you can hear me dammit! Fight it!"

Just like before, no response other than a silent assault, but this time the drone adjusted for her dodge, and the two of them hit the ground. Synthetic skin squeaked across the floor. Fingers clamped down onto the drone's shoulders, and Anna used their backwards momentum to flip the whole mechanical mess over. Finally in a dominant position, she struggled through tear-blurred vision and quaking nerves. Painful twinges of empathy shot all over her body, knowing all too well what he was about to go through.

"... forgive me," she whispered, dumping a massive jolt of electricity into his body. She rolled off and lay by his side, weeping pathetic tears.

* * *

Frost began to consume the desk at the workstation, crawling out from Elsa's clenched fists in gnarled bursts. She'd seen everything through the cameras, and wanted nothing more than to reach through the screen and comfort her beloved. A deep breath later, and she tried desperately to quell the storm within long enough to hijack a bot.

The standard interface wasn't forthcoming, so she hooked up a thumb-sized remote device to the universal interface on the computer. As soon as the connection was made, her EEG halo began to massage her scalp, giving her sensory feedback. Permission gates stood in her way since the software was relatively robust. But whoever had made one of the low-level systems made a costly mistake, and after some poking, Elsa found her target. There was a buffer overrun glitch, and she was able to inject just the right code and own the entire system.

Anger lead to extreme focus, and within moments she'd found a bot near her target. That awful woman who'd tried to fry her precious Anna... She watched hungrily as Clarice ran full-tilt down the hallway, only to be stopped by a meter-thick wall of ice shooting straight out of the ground. The captive woman backed up against the wall only to face an 8 foot tall mech armed to the nines.

Just then, the door to the security room collapsed under the strain of dozens of drones piling against it. Within moments the room filled with bodies, all of them pulling at Elsa, who was frozen in wide-eyed shock. Out of desperation she spawned a thick ice cocoon, but the constant barrage of the drones made quick work of it, chiseling it down to a pile of shards. A shrill scream echoed through the halls all the way down to the bowels of the facility, strings of icy protest trailed all the way down like the claws of a beast dragged into oblivion.

Desperate for freedom, instincts took over and Elsa reached out with her mind. Her wireless connection was holding on by a thread. If she could hold on for just a bit longer she'd be able to get another bot...

The EEG halo was ripped right off her head, the AR glasses soon afterward. It was a violation that turned her stomach, and the straw keeping her from turning violent snapped. She balled up massive amounts of frosty energy until it threatened to collapse under its own weight, then shot it outwards with all her might.

Bodies flew outwards from the epicenter in a dazzling array before slamming into the walls and falling lifelessly to the ground, some bloodied and broken. Unimaginable amounts of raw energy flowed through the icy demi-goddess, forming dazzling spheres by her fingertips. She barely had time to get into a fighting pose before the hive charged again. Pouring her icy power into the ground spawned a thick ice wall, and she expelled it away from her offensively, only for the relentless hive to clash against it, using their sheer numbers to overpower.

This cycle continued; each new wave depleted her reserves further and further. Fatigue set in, robbing her of power and drive. Just like her nightmare on Anna's bed, a wall of flesh and metal pierced the ice, claiming her completely.

After her defeat, and having been dragged all the way down into the abyssal basement, Elsa found herself angrily staring out from a thick sapphire capsule. When trying to blast it with ice proved futile, she sat against the glass, staring venom at her captor.

"Contrary to what you might think miss Arendelle, we're not a monster."

"You've GOT to be kidding me. Really?" Her shoulders came up, her fist clenched by her hips and face contorted. "You send your bitch-queen to try and kill my girlfriend and make a goddamn JOKE about it and you're not a monster?!"

Hans gave her an inquisitive look, unsure what to make of her protests. "Of course we attacked you, you stood in our way. As for the humor, one must always make light of a dark situation lest it overwhelm them. But we're going to be gracious and give you a choice."

Elsa crossed her arms and tossed her head to the side, refusing to entertain him.

"We are the future. This world is sick and broken, and we have the power to fix it. You can be a part of that future, and be one with the hive, or I'll have to eliminate you. It would be unfortunate... but I won't lie. We enjoy stamping out rogue elements. It's how we've gotten this far."

_'Ugh, you can't justify this,'_  she thought to herself, consumed with disgust. Without ever facing him directly, she meticulously spelled out the words "fuck off" in elaborate ice crystals, adorning it with care, going so far as to swoop the serifs on the letters.

"What a shame," he replied, eyes downcast. "Maybe your sister will feel differently. Won't be too hard to get her down here now that you've been captured."

* * *

Heavy breaths escaped tired lungs, fueling the young warrior as she tossed yet another attacker over her shoulder. They were coming faster now, she was sure of it. They went down fairly easily, due to the fact that most of the augmentation jobs were botched in the first place. Nearly all of them were entirely flesh and bone, minus the brain implants.

Their fleshiness was a double-edged sword. Though the combatants individually posed little danger, if she wasn't careful she could cut them down into chunky giblets by accident. But just as soon as she let her guard down, three of them grabbed her at once, a reminder of just how easily they could overwhelm her.

Desperate to shake the impending dog-pile, Anna jumped up onto a support pillar and dug in with her feet and free hand. Inch by inch, she crawled upwards, increasing the strain on the fleshy drones clinging to her until they dropped to the ground. Hanging above the swarm below, Anna breathed a sigh of relief, and took stock of the situation. She sighed and let her upper lip snarl, it wasn't looking good.

All around, the entire hive stopped moving at once. A chorus of unified voices, they spoke. "Elsa has agreed to be a part of our collective." Each one shifted, holding one arm outwards in a single direction as though indicating a path. "See for yourself."

The whole facility echoed with the sound of locks disengaging and doors throwing themselves open. Skeptical, Anna clasped the few remaining EMP grenades on her belt. _'Elsa would never...'_  the thought trailed off as Anna began the long journey to investigate. The closer she got, the less fleshy the drones became. Her skin crawled at the sight of one drone implanting armor into another. She hoped silently to herself that if there was any semblance of the individual trapped within that they were blissfully unaware of what was being inflicted upon them.

One foot followed another, pushing her past the threshold and into what was clearly the collective's home base. The environment around was in a state of flux. Drones set up regeneration chambers, medical and mechanical workstations, as well as what appeared to be a transportation line out of the building.

"Anna," came the voice. She wasn't sure she was ready to look.

"Elsa?" she asked, reluctantly turning to face her. "What's gotten into you?"

"I just listened to reason. You know how thoughtful I am."

She couldn't help but agree. Elsa was nothing if not a lover of logic and reason. But this? No, something wasn't right. She had to be drugged, or maybe even assimilated. If Anna's chronometric implant hadn't been slowing her perceptions right then, she might not even have noticed it, but the image of Elsa flickered for just a fraction of a second.

_'Hologram!'_

She leapt high into the air, dropping one of the grenades underneath her. It fell into a swath of drones that dived on her old position, knocking them out. Hanging from a pipe attached to the underside of the walkway above, she scanned the room for any sign of the real Elsa.

"Damn," she said aloud, finding nothing. Something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, a bright spot across the room. Two drones walked a person-sized metal box out to an illuminated spot on the wall, where a white ball was mounted behind a protective window. The container split in half, and an unconscious person emerged. Upon seeing the two drones plug the unconscious body into the device and the body come to life, Anna got the idea. The sight of the assimilation reminded her of the conversation she'd had with Elsa about the danger of the technology including the unresolved psychosis issues, and she desperately hoped that she could heal these people when it was all over. Chills came over her; the clock was ticking away.

Hurling her momentum back, then heaving it forth, Anna flung herself upwards past the railing. Gracefully she flew through the air, tucking hard at first, then gently uncurling till she flipped over backwards, her arms stretching outwards like wings. The clash of her feet hitting the mesh were more drones, weaving and swarming. They started climbing the railing to catch up to her, and after a brief moment of teeth-baring horror, she calmed herself long enough to recharge her shock system. Still no sign of Elsa or Hans.

The drones caught up to her, and this time more of them were mechanical than last time, vastly cutting down her combat advantage. She felt her throat close and her breath shorten. Turning her attention inwards, she pushed the growing anxiety deep within, turning it into powerful electric currents. Uncertainty loomed - was her mind playing tricks on her? It was possible that her chronometric implant was stuttering, but Anna could swear that each time she fired, the drones adapted to the shock more and more quickly.

Without a second's warning, the closest mechanical monstrosity lunged at her. With femtoseconds to spare she latched onto its chassis, rolling with the dive. Unleashing a guttural roar she unleashed every volt of static charge she had. The attacking drone collapsed, but the remaining ones responded with only a stutter and a blue glow. Sparks danced off their newly adapted configuration.

Instinct pushed Anna to try the cloaking device. A loud buzz in her ears and a crossed out battery in her vision meant that the power was drained, and there'd be no invisibility any time soon.

Eyes widening in primal fear and options running out, she scanned desperately for an escape route. The window was closing swiftly, walls of impending doom encroaching from all sides. Closing her eyes she made a leap of faith towards what she thought was a clearing in the nightmare. It wasn't enough. All around her the ruthless drones dug their claws in. She struggled into futility, writhing and wrenching until her limbs gave out. Slowly her field of vision began to shrink as the pile grew.

Through the tiny opening, Anna saw that far above, Hans was looming over Elsa who shrank, cowering underneath. Flashbacks of all they'd been through together played out in Anna's mind; she realized that her one true love, sister and soul-mate would meet her end today as well...

The very thought of something so precious being lost rekindled her fight with the strength of a raging fire. She reached deep within, and found the infinite well of willpower and determination that had been part of her all along. Against the astronomical weight above her she struggled. She pushed ferociously until she'd emerged from the other side, but the hive still had her by the left arm. Trying to break free she pulled again and again with tenacity that would make Sisyphus run green with envy. Stress alarms all throughout her body blared and warnings flashed in her vision, which was tunneling red at the sides from exertion. When she ignored them her body resorted to sending natural pain signals of crippling intensity, but she persisted regardless. The hive tightened its grip on her in response. Without a second thought she tripled her efforts, trembling as the joints, tendons and neural implants in her shoulder tore away. Sparks, blood and coolant fluid all flew from the newly cleaved limb.

Finally free from the nightmare, her pulse spiked. Time was of the essence, but as she looked upwards it became clear that scaling the chamber fast enough was impossible. The walls were too slick to climb, and the catwalks didn't go all the way up. Freaking out with her lips quivering, she ran her remaining hand over her forehead, dragging her fingers through frazzled copper colored locks. How could she come this far, and sacrifice so much only to have it not be good enough? As her hand came back down, her fingertip grazed her medullary implant, and feeling the edge of the diagnostic port stirred a hint of a memory, like a fuzzy dream. Like a trail of breadcrumbs, there was something to be found and she felt as though she  _knew_  the answer. Tossing her last EMP grenade towards the hive and coaxing her sense of time to a crawl to give her more time, she followed the trail.

' _By the lake at home weeks ago, I walked alone. It was the first time I really got to think about who I am and what I'm here for. I know I was made for this, since others gave up so much for me. But when did this all start?_

_I wonder… when I first met Dr. Lancaster, papa gave me an upgrade. He never told me what it was for._

_What's even weirder is that it came up again, when Elsa and I followed him to Ashley. But still, nobody knew what it was for. Although, Ashley said it was a lot like what's in these drones._

_Come on, Anna, think! What do you know about a hivemind?_

_Hans is controlling it. Clarice was helping, but everyone else was a slave. That means there are monarchs!_

_Wait a second! That upgrade was called monarch something… Maybe the way is not up… but through! Oh gosh, can I really do this? What if it doesn't work? Elsa told me that some people go crazy, that they lose themselves in this thing. What if I turn into a slave just like them?_

_No, I can't turn back now. I have to save Elsa. What happens to me doesn't matter.'_

The threat of fatigue pushing her onwards, Anna hopped up onto a nearby pipe, and slid down it with her only hand. She grit her teeth as the synthetic skin on her palm peeled away, the metal underneath grinded against the pipe hard enough to send fiery sparks flying. Hurtling towards the root node, she let go and gravity did the rest, pulling her on a long arc towards uncertainty. Pain provoked a grunt, her ribs compacted as she hit the wall at top speed.

Beaten and broken, she staggered to her feet. With her shredded, mangled hand she plugged the uplink cable into her head, took a deep breath, closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

* * *

Hans' body gave off a menacing hum as he inched closer to his prey. Moments ago, both hunter and hunted had witnessed the daughter of Agdar succumb to the hive, and Hans had now turned his attention to Elsa. The door to the capsule slid open, giving him entry.

"Unbelievable… even in death, your father can't stop failing. You know, back when we were just 'I', I had a feeling you might reject my future, so I had my engineers cook up a special surprise just for the occasion."

Frozen in place, Elsa watched as his hand split apart, folded backwards and re-assembled into something far more sinister. From the metal mass emerged an ominous syringe.

"These nanites will swarm down to your feet, work their way upwards and latch onto each nerve in your body. At each one they will overload it all the way to just below the breaking point. This will cascade upwards, bringing a wave of agony from which there is no escape." He smirked fiendishly at her.

"What!? Why not just assimilate me forcefully? I mean think of what my ice powers could do!"

"We gave you a choice, and you turned it down. Why would we reward dissent? Besides, we don't need living tissue to figure out your quirk."

Speechless, she simply stared in horror. This was really happening. She'd failed everyone, and was going to pay for it. At least she wouldn't have to suffer long, she thought.

"Once you're in up to your neck, two very special nanites will move deeper into your brain and turn your sense of time to a standstill. The next wave of nanobots will dump a potent flood of serotonin agonists right into the receptors. Centuries will pass in your mind as your body revolts against you, muscles contracting and spasming, an infernal fever consuming every iota of your being. All the while we'll vary the pain levels… just to keep you from adapting."

He licked his lips and shuddered, dragging the needle across her skin. He took every precaution not to break it prematurely.

"And out here, comfortably guarded by our invincible drone hive, we'll eagerly watch every wave of neural activity, watching our handiwork until we personally see your final surrender. Then, and only then will you be shut down."

No evil laughter came forth, no gloating or mustache-twirling. All he did was stare her down and smile faintly. The totality of his malice could be seen in the reflection of his eyes. He inched forwards until his mouth was practically touching her ear.

"Or maybe we'll keep you locked in that hell forever. Who knows, maybe we'll even take the most intimate memories of you with yourincestuous whoreand make some minor adjustments. She never really loved you anyways, did she? Enjoy the theater of the mind you fleshy, weak _osterkleer_."

Something other than sadism went wrong in Hans' head. His displays flickered and everything went black for just a fraction of a millisecond. The strangest, most ineffable feeling came over him ever so briefly along with the sensory interruption, but then all normalcy returned.

With her fearful soul laid bare, Elsa stared back at him with wide, tearful eyes. Her lips quivered and she whimpered pathetically. Skin pinched inwards, the needle pierced a vein, opening the floodgates for millions of tiny nanites. Searing pain consumed her body and she fell backwards, slamming onto the floor. Sweet, sweet victory was finally firmly within Hans' grasp.

* * *

"... and he really can't tell he's trapped in a simulation?" Elsa asked, only minutes after watching Hans collapse to his knees. As soon as he'd hit the ground, the entire hive swarmed him.

Anna nodded, the cable still plugged into her head swayed in response. Across the room, Hans lifeless body was restrained by several drones, keeping him plugged into a CyberDynamics Virtual Reality cube until his consciousness could be transferred entirely into the cube. Anna's voice echoed through the hive, coming out of each of the people connected, but the kind, endearing tone was unmistakably hers. "It would have been easy to just... shut him down. But..."

"You don't want to be like him," Elsa finished.

"I've never killed anyone... I wasn't going to start now."

_'Which is more than I can say,'_  Elsa thought, showing hints of guilt over the blood she'd spilled. She rubbed her arm where the needle had been dragged but not actually pierced and replied. "Just in the nick of time."

Her sister frowned, casting her gaze down. Each of the connected drones displayed the collective dismay in their body language. "I know, I'm sorry I wasn't faster..."

"No! You didn't do anything wrong I just..." Elsa stopped, trying to get her breathing under control. "It was terrifying. What he was going to do to me, I mean."

"I know snowflake. I could feel it as soon as I plugged in. I can feel everything. Father was right, this is going to change everything. I've access to so many memories, so much knowledge."

"How does it work?"

"Do you remember back when we followed papa's GPL to Ashley? And we discussed an upgrade?"

"Mhmm," she said, nodding. Her eyes were starting to dry as well as get wider in curiosity.

"It's called the monarch protocol, and my copy is special. It lets me override anyone else and become the queen of the hive."

Alarm bells went off in Elsa's head. Everything she'd seen so far told her that kind of thing was begging to be abused.  _'What if Anna turns into Hans?'_ she thought, and then immediately chastised herself for thinking it.  _'That's impossible.'_

"That sounds like a dangerous power."

Anna went silent, her expression blank. Her eyes glowed and her chest flexed ever so slightly under her breath, but aside from that she was as still as an empty night. The intensity of her eye-glow pulsed slowly at first, then picked up speed.

Elsa cocked her head to the side, and slowly drew closer. "Anna?"

Anna went slack again and blinked. "You're right. The beauty behind the SWARM's original design is that it's totally decentralized. This monarch protocol messes that whole thing up."

Gritting her teeth and shrugging her shoulders, Elsa leaned over to the bloody socket where her sister's arm used to be. Her finger hovered inches from it until she recoiled in empathetic pain. Words failed her, and she simply held her hands over her mouth.

"Don't sweat it. I'd give anything for you, snowflake. besides, this was nothing, I can have the hive help me patch it up."

They held each other as tightly as they could possibly manage, tears of relief flowing freely. Finally, Elsa pulled back, cradling Anna's face in her hand. "Please don't stay in there too long, we don't know what it might do to you."

Anna nodded. Her nerves were beginning to calm now that the fight was over, and as incredible as it felt to be thousands of times more intelligent than normal, it also reinforced that they were all in uncharted territory. With a smile, she softly whispered "Soon. There's nothing I want more than to just have some normal, domestic lovey time with you. But first, we have some fixing to do... and oh oh Kristoff's ok! I can feel him in here! Let's go get him! I'll carry you!"

Side by side, and hand-in-hand, they boldly went to set things right.


	14. Reach for the Stars

_Author's note: This is a double-update! Make sure you've read chapter 13 before this one!_

* * *

Despite having turned off the monarch protocol, Anna's intentions were still heavily respected by the hive. Before disengaging the protocol, she'd made one request: to dismantle the hivemind and have all of the members keep its existence a secret. Together, they combined their efforts to release the members one-by-one, removing unwanted implants and healing wounds.

The agreement was swift and unanimous, and they set to work deleting all the records of the project's existence, save for one under Anna's possession. The longer healing process would take years, but everyone involved had been given an innate kinship from the experience. Before parting ways, all the former drones exchanged heartfelt hugs, tears, and contact information before briefly and somewhat ironically heading for the exit all at once. When the building was clear of any traces of the hivemind project, the lockdown was called off by Anna herself, using a pilfered security clearance.

Which just left Anna, Elsa and Kristoff, alone. Bright rays from the rising sun spilled into the city around them, warming the scene as well as their hearts and painting splotches of steel and concrete a vibrant red. They'd commanded Kristoff's motorbike back to the garage, opting to take Anna's car now that their trio was whole again. The root node lay safely in the trunk as they headed for home.

"What are we going to do about this thing Anna?" Kristoff asked. Elsa looked back at him over her shoulder and nodded in agreement.

She took her time before responding. While she'd been one with the hivemind, Anna had undergone the deepest of meditations. Even as the most powerful mind in the known universe, a clear answer had not arrived. This technology could completely revolutionize everything and be an unstoppable tide for evil just as easily and intensely as for good. The other drones in the hive reminded Anna how their servitude had been involuntary, but the promise of understanding the secrets of the universe and intimate interconnectedness almost seemed a viable counterweight to the possibility of falling prey to psychopathic ambition.

"We… um, I mean I… don't know what to do. Really. All I know is that it's my duty to guard this thing until we're ready for it," Anna said, raising her head to the sky as though to find some inspiration.

With one eyebrow raised, Elsa said, "You know... I think I know the perfect place to do just that..."

* * *

Elsa twirled her fingers through her immaculate white hair, anxious to hear from those which she'd missed so deeply this past year. The display on her father's old computer sharpened into a clearer image, and a portrait of her godfather appeared in the holographic cloud.

"Agdar? Where have you been? We've been worried sick about you."

"I'm not my father, Kai," Elsa said with a tone of authority.

"Elsa! Oh you... you know. What happened?"

Nearby, a globe of the Luna-Earth system lay on her father's desk, spinning infinitesimally as though prodded long ago. She stared at it vacantly as she spoke. "It's a long story, but I'm ready to come home. My... ability is a part of me now, although it's getting weaker for some reason."

"Gerda! Elsa's coming home!" Elsa grimaced, holding her head away from the speaker as it blared. The boisterous shouting from the other end of the line was heartwarming, but still just a bit too much.

"I'm going to be bringing some people with me. You remember my girlfriend, Anna?"

"Of course."

"I'll be bringing her and one other along. That's ok, right?"

"Absolutely."

* * *

A fingertip with peach-colored synthetic skin on the top and black grippy skin on the pad pressed gently onto the flat-panel screen. 'Downloading biometrics lock' it said, with a progress meter that quickly filled.

Anna stared at the machine while it shut down. With the lock in place, she was now the only person who could re-activate it, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Now deactivated, the root node looked like a rather curious thing. It was unimposing and almost generic looking, just a sphere with a circular inset and some engraved lines. Picking it up with both hands, she lifted it up and into a custom-made case. The locks engaged with a whirr and a muted clunk. Augmented senses alerted her to new company long before anyone spoke. Still facing away from the door, she asked: "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Well," came Elsa's soothing, loving voice. "the three of us are going on a trip. One that I think you'll really love!"

Anna whipped around, and headed for her stained Victorian wardrobe. Singing to herself softly, she quickly grabbed her favorite garments, tossed them casually onto the bed, then took off to grab some essentials from the closet.

"You might want to bring that borg sphere with you, we're gonna be out for quite some time."

"Okie," Anna started, head buried amongst the things in her closet. "But we have to make an important stop first."

The weather had shifted, and the sun was obfuscated by a thick layer of black clouds. Despite being devoid of thunder and lighting, there was a definite illness to the scene, uncharacteristic of the season. Ravens cawed all around, perching atop wrought iron fences and granite headstones.

Hand-in-hand, the Arendelle sisters shared a somber silence. Before them, entrenched in the earth, lay two polished headstones. They took turns placing floral arrangements of their own design down upon the grass. Agdar's memorial was largely devoid of type, his name and lifespan notwithstanding, but had the image of a shuttle taking to the skies etched on the surface. Idnunn's was more elaborate, with lacy floral patterns etched into the sides as well as the quote she'd recited to Anna whenever spirits were low: "Never regret thy fall, 'o Icarus of the fearless flight. For the greatest tragedy of all is never to feel the burning light."

The slick wet grass compressed under their steps, falling flat against the dirt. They walked in silence through the shade of the willow trees and down a trodden path, eventually stopping at another headstone some distance away. It was just over knee-height and made of solid obsidian. The tall edges were twisted pillars in a double helical shape, supporting a planar body with an asymmetrical, teardrop-shaped profile. Ashley Lancaster's name and lifespan adorned the grave, but it was otherwise textless.

"All of them, they gave up eternity for this…"

"Eternity?" Elsa asked, with perhaps more of a dismissive tone than she meant to.

"Ashley was into regenerative medicine, like most of us augs. If it wasn't for Hans…"

Elsa froze in place, contemplating exactly what that meant. Try as she did, contextualizing it with only her two decades alive proved an insurmountable task. Not just Ashley but her parents as well, were willing to give up a shot at eternal youth to try making the world a better place.

It made her feel hopelessly inadequate, but not without being partially inspired. After all, that courage and selflessness did run in her blood as well.  _'Maybe someday I'll be that great...'_  In any case, it was getting uncomfortable and she felt compelled to change the situation. She tapped a command onto her wrist display and waited. Before long, the trees and grass began to sway from the gusts of wind.

"Sparky?" She asked, raising her voice to be heard over the turbines of the newly arrived VTOL craft.

"What is it snowflake?"

"Let's go get our belongings from the car, then get in the jet. I'm going to make one of your dreams come true."  _'For real, this time.'_

"Ooh, I can't wait!" Anna said, skipping off to grab her things. When she got to the car, she punched Kristoff in the arm to wake him up, and just flipped her wrist at his protestations of 'abuse'. "Come on you stinker grab your stuff. Elsa summoned a jet for crying out loud!"

Once all three passengers were aboard, the jet roared into action. Rocketing forwards, inertia hit everyone in just the right spot to give them goosebumps all over and the sensation of falling off-balance for an extended period.

Several hours later, Anna awoke to the sight of Elsa's head lying on her shoulder. Her skin glowed a radiant white, blonde tufts bounced across an adorable slumbering face. Gently, she dragged the back of her hand down Elsa's cheek, then gave her a kiss on the forehead.

' _I still can't believe she's real...'_

What she saw next only drove that sentiment home even further. With her hands wrapped around the arm-rest, she gazed out the window to see the vast expanse of desert filled with spacecraft surrounding Spaceport America. An unquenchable smile came across her lips, and her heart practically melted in her chest.

Her heart skipped a beat at soft hands sliding around her midsection. Warm affection washed over her as Elsa nuzzled up against her. "I see you've figured out where we're going."

"You're the best, snowflake."

* * *

A squealing hiss cut through the air, along with parting doors. Muted rumbles shook through the transport ship as locking mechanisms engaged, and the vibrations ran all the way through until they died just after Anna felt them. An uncontrollable goofy grin commandeered her vibrant face, and it was still quite noticeable by the time Elsa had peeled her eyes away from the window. She smirked at herself, and only realized far too late how contagious her love's smile really was.

"Elsa, Elsa, we're here!"

Thin woven bands of the restraining harness slid off of shoulders, and with her arms free Elsa locked them in Anna's. She turned around to the seat behind her, and asked, "You ready, Kristoff?"

He looked back with an awkward mish-mash of of smile and grimace. "I'm not a big fan of cramped spaces... but yeah, ready as I'll ever be."

Elsa shot him a re-assuring smile and a nod. "If it gets bad, we can visit the sick bay."

In a flash, Anna had her hands on the seat behind her, her face just barely poking over the edge of the seats. Her eyebrows both peaked simultaneously. "If the drugs don't work my hugs and cuddles can heal anything!"

"It's true," Elsa said, "I would know!"

The trio rose from their seats and found their footing despite legs of jello from the long journey.

One small step past the threshold, and Anna was finally on the station. She squeezed Elsa's hand while taking a look around. It was just like her memories back at home in the simulation. The space was small, but not so much as to incite claustrophobia. The trim, polished steel walls with beveled paneling were all doused in a cool glow from the white overheads, deepened even further with a splash of blue reflected from the planet far off in the distance. She felt the grating under her feet and looked down to see the gunmetal foundation. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath of the crisp, clean, eternally still air and got goosebumps all over. It was such a unique change from the cyber-victorian aesthetic back home that she totally immersed in it.

Just as she went to go tell Elsa that the reality of being offworld was way better than her wildest dreams, she was interrupted by a middle-aged couple at the end of the docking hallway.

"Elsa! Welcome back!"

Anna found herself taken aback, this time it was  _Elsa_  who was running full-tilt to hand-deliver warm hugs.  _'Hey that's my thing!'_  she pretended to protest. Her heart was consumed with that familiar fawning feeling, and she smiled to herself before skipping along to catch up.

"Oh it's so good to be back!" Elsa said, stepping back and taking Anna by the hand again. "Gerda, Kai, this my girlfriend Anna."

Gerda immediately took Anna by the hands and warmly welcomed her to the station. Kai gave Elsa an inquisitive look that asked  _'You're dating THAT Anna?'_

Elsa nodded with her lips straight and eyebrows taut as though to say  _'Yes... please don't hate me.'_

A shrug and half-smile replied  _'Whatever makes you happy dear.'_

The past year's growth gave her the fortitude to keep her flood of relief from becoming glaringly obvious. She gestured to Kristoff and gave his introduction next. "This is Kristoff, he's helped keep us sane over the past year."

"Hello Kristoff," Kai stated, straightening his posture and getting just a bit more formal. "Would you all like to take the tour?"

Elsa perked up and interjected before the rest of her enthusiastic companions could, "Yes! But, we have to unload our stuff first."

"Go right ahead. We kept your old quarters empty."

 _'Wait that room could fetch thousands of dollars in rent a month...'_  The numbers summed up automatically in her mind, and the result hit her like a stray comet.  _'Don't cry... don't cry...'_

* * *

A playful cyborg, happy and free, flopped backwards through the air eventually crashing onto her new bed. "Woo! Finally done dragging all those boxes around."

Her companion laughed. "Yeah... dragging. You were holding them over your head like Atlas, little miss show-off."

Anna boisterously stuck out her face and grinned till her pearly whites were impossible to ignore. "Maaaybe just a little bit."

A clang rang out in the room as pale white hands pushed the metal closet door open. Trying her best not to scratch the floor panels, Elsa pushed the case her sister had fabricated containing the SWARM inside. When she turned around, a geyser of a nosebleed threatened to explode everywhere.

In one motion, Anna's shirt trailed up her body and flew off onto the bed. She rummaged through her suitcase to find a replacement.

"Hey Elsa, what do you think I should wear?"

The flabbergasted technician tried to avert her gaze, and fumbled for words. It was futile of course, trying to look away from such bare beauty.

"I... uh, you know... a shirt I guess? I mean you don't have to you look just fine without one... wait what?"

Anna snickered to herself. Her flustered rambling had worn off on Elsa and gosh she'd be damned if that wasn't the cutest thing. She picked out a red silk shirt that draped really well with a deep cowl neckline. It plunged deep enough to show the composite chassis implanted under her skin as well as the trans-dermal juncture and mounting bolts... and a whole lot more.

_'Stop staring, stop staring... oh who am I kidding?'_

"Hey are you ready? The tour awaits!"

"Almost, I'll catch up with you."

Anna nodded, then sauntered towards the door, intentionally putting herself on display. She took a peek behind her only to giggle at Elsa's dazed state. Then she was gone.

Shaking, Elsa did a double-take to ensure that she was actually alone. It was tough to be certain, since Anna's perceptions were far superior to her own, but she was reasonably certain that the temptation to go socialize combined with the fact that Anna had no reason for spying meant that she had the room to herself.

The lid of an incubator creaked ever so softly as she lifted it to look inside. A billowing plume of vapors rolled out from the warm box, dissipating into the air. Her pulse quickened ever more as she dove her hands into the vaporous incubator, hitting a crescendo as she wrapped them around a dish containing a cloned sample of her own flesh. Before the trip she'd hastily innervated the flesh with a common nerve interface and glued the whole thing together with synthetic glial cells.

Lungs locked up and her throat closed. The tension was killing her, and despite all of this, not a sign of ice, frost or snow anywhere in the room. She slid her desk drawer open, grabbed a microscope and placed the dish underneath.

No ice there either. Dumbfounded, she shook her head and looked again. Nothing. Assuming she kept the chunk of flesh alive, there would be no rejection whatsoever.

The glass dish nearly shattered as it was thrown back into the incubator. Hyperventilating, she slammed the lid shut and tried to cut through the noise in her head. With one hand planted firmly on her chest, heaving and wheezing, she finally admitted to herself,  _'I'm... compatible.'_

* * *

"Where's Elsa?" Gerda asked, eyes darting back and forth.

"She said she'd catch up, so... wait," Anna said, lifting her finger to her temple and squinting. "Ah ok, she's just around the corner. Hi snowflake!"

Panting, Elsa put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. "Sorry about that, I'm sluggish today."

Her godmother gave her a quick smile, then turned to motion through the glass doors before them. Everyone followed her through.

"This is Operations. We coordinate all the work here, keep track of shipments and materials, basically anything that..."

Her godmother's voice faded into the background, Elsa walked on autopilot to a familiar destination. By one of the workstations she reached down, gently pressing her fingers against the surface. Her eyes shut, and while consumed by the personal blackness she took in the world around her. Nostalgic memories flashed by, coaxed to the surface by ever familiar sounds – soft chimes and notes from computers, gentle thrumming of the life support and air conditioning. All of it coalesced into a single concept in her mind.

_'Home.'_

Just then, a low-level maintenance alert popped up in the queue. Nothing pressing, just one of the gyro units in the station's orientation array needed calibration. Without thinking she sunk down into the chair and called up a service bot.

Anna felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned to look Kristoff interrupted the conversation. He pointed over at where Elsa was sitting.

"That didn't take long, did it?"

Gerda looked over and couldn't help but smile to herself. "She was practically born to run this place. I'm surprised she could resist as long as she did." With a sweet chuckle, she ushered everyone onwards to the conference room, as it was the next stop in the tour. Anna took note of the destination, marked it on her internal map and ran over to the workstation where Elsa was already tapping away. She wrapped her up in a big hug and kissed her on the back of the head, taking in the sweet scent.

"When you're done playing technician, call me. I think the galley is the last trip on the tour and we'll have dinner together."

"See you then," Elsa replied, looking up at those intricate turquoise eyes she loved so much.

* * *

Weeks later, and what had started as merely a visit wound up growing into something far more comfortable. It bordered on the domestic, and when everyone realized that they couldn't keep Elsa from working despite the fact that she was supposed to be on 'vacation', Kai gave the trio a go-ahead to stay there permanently. Kristoff settled relatively quickly, his super human strength rather popular with the excavation team. Anna on the other hand preferred to take care of people rather than machines or minerals, and after downloading the latest psychology journals from Earth straight into her brain wound up filling a sorely needed therapist role on the station.,

Soon after, they used a telepresence drone and Elsa's new found confidence to fetch a fair price for the house in Newton. They shipped their most prized possessions from the home up to the station.

Over those same weeks, nightmares inspired by their battle with Hans occurred less and less. One sister would wake in a cold sweat, sometimes yelling and flailing. But comfort was never far, and the loving, reassuring embrace of the other was blissfully sedating. Eventually the horror subsided entirely.

One night just before bed, Anna lay on the plush bedding in their quarters, kicking her feet back and forth. Elsa's cryokinesis had faded drastically in power, although she gained similarly drastic levels of control. She used this new shift to draw intricate, icy trails in the air in front of Anna's face. Flowing gracefully, she moved in perfect tune with the energy flowing inside of her.

"Oh that light show was beautiful Elsa!" Anna said, opening her mouth wide in an exhausted yawn. "I'm gonna regenerate now. Gimme kisses."

Playful, sweet pecks ensued and shortly after, Anna's eyes closed as her head hit the pillow. Much like a light, she was out for the night.

Elsa, on the other hand, was far from tired. Her mind raced, and after a brief moment with her eyes shut, she mediated her breathing, then walked right up to her reflection in the window and stared it down.

" _As I stand here, staring back at the Earth in all its_ _wonder_ _, I can't help but think about the future. When I landed down there, all I saw was bleak and horrific. I thought technology would give evil people the power to act without consequence. I was given a front-row seat to this human ugliness._

_I see a different future now._ _I've seen that t_ _here are good people, augmented and natural alike, who are willing and able to step in and give us a bright future_ _,_ _using the incredible power of technology to leave behind a world worth being proud of._

_All we have to do is find it within ourselves to love and encourage them._ _"_


End file.
